01x13: Come back before dark
by Gabrielle Henson
Summary: 13th episode in the 'Rocky path' series. As Faith and Tara are growing closer since Kira's attack and subsequent adventures, they end up investigating about what appears to be ritual murders commited around a bar in a small town
1. Teaser

_Disclaimer : Everyone knows who own Buffy and co ! Let's say it, it's not me!_

_ This story is the 13th episode in a series called 'Rocky path' that begins around one year after 'Chosen'_

_( I strongly recommend to read the 12 first episodes to understand that one) _

_You can check the series out on my website. (see the url in my profile)  
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_I know it's been (again) a very long while since the last episode was published, but I'm back, hopefully on the right tracks to provide the final episodes of the season faster than I realeased the last three ones..._

_I would like to thank very much everyone who left feedback about the last episode and everyone who'll be there to read that one!_

_Enjoy and tell me what you think!  
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_Monday_

Faith and Tara were quietly following a narrow dirty path, Tara tightened in her thick coat, Faith only wearing a light leather jacket. One was watching them, hidden a few feet behind in the shadows of the trees lining up the path, probably thinking they were only taking a nice digestive walk at nightfall. Who could blame him about this? Obviously in a very good mood, both girls were casually laughing and joking around out loud, apparently unaware of their stalker's presence.

"You should have seen his face!" Faith was happily exclaiming, gesturing around her, supposedly miming something whose meaning remained unclear to anyone but her.

"I've seen his face, Faith" Tara replied with indulgence in a softer tone but nevertheless loud enough to be heard. "I was there."

The watcher sneaked discreetly behind the trees behind them, taking great care to not be seen nor heard.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah" Faith went on in the same tone. "Of course you were there! But you haven't seen him as well as I have!"

Tara rolled her eyes but gave an amused chuckle.

"If you want, Faith. You've probably seen him better than I have" she admitted in a fake tone of resignation.

Their stalker then carefully quickened his pace in order to catch up with them, still taking care to remain unseen.

Faith thrust out her chest with satisfaction, and then she leaned to Tara's ear and quickly whispered in a very low voice:

"One right in front of me slightly on my left and one behind us on the right"

Tara imperceptibly nodded.

"Okay, I've seen them too," she replied in the same way.

"Ready?" Faith breathed.

"Ready."

In a very well coordinated movement, both girls turned around to stand back to back. While Faith seized the vampire who was getting ready to jump at her throat and raised her stake above his head, Tara for her part, conjured a football-sized fireball between her hands and threw it at her attacker's face. Both vampires immediately crumpled to dust without even having time to show any sign of surprise. The moment after, the two friends were facing each other again and Faith raised her hand to celebrate. Tara clapped it clumsily and gave a smile to the Slayer:

"Good shot"!

"Was easy for me," Faith replied, shrugging. "But nice shot from you" she added.

And with this, they resumed their casual walk on the muddy path.

_Tuesday_

Tara was leaning against the pillar of a high crypt, trying to look as casual as possible. It was pitch-dark and only a few stars and the moon half-covered with big clouds were lightening the sky. At the way the blonde was regularly casting glances around her, it was obvious she was not entirely at ease.

"Hey, Blondie, lost your way?" suddenly exclaimed a mocking voice.

Tara jumped slightly and turned her head round to find herself nearly face to face with a tall vampire who had just exited the crypt through a side door. Tara considered how tall he was and opened her mouth as to say something but finally remained silent. He then seized abruptly her wrist and tried to drag her along behind him.

"I'll walk you home! " He shouted in the same tone.

A slender figure then fell heavily on his back, and the vampire found himself lying on the ground on his stomach and released Tara in the process. Before he had time to understand what had happened to him, Faith, who had just jumped from the crypt's roof, drove a long stake in his back at the heart's place, and he disappeared into dust, dirtying the Slayer already not too clean pair of jeans.

"No, thank you, I'm waiting for someone," Tara replied then, addressing the pile of dust.

Faith stood and giggled.

"Joking around now?"

"Isn't it what you do, you Slayers?"

"That one was a little long to come. You didn't look exactly ready to make jokes before I staked him"

"It's just I'm not used to this."

"Don't worry, you won't be used as a bait like that anymore. I don't like it either. But that one wasn't getting out since I missed him the other day. I haven't come up with anything else. But you weren't at risk you know. Was just there"

"Not used to making jokes I meant" Tara clarified as they were getting away, Faith brushing desperately her jeans in order to make them clearer.

"Oh, okay."

_Wednesday_

Faith was running as fast as she could, weaving in and out high trees, often changing direction to try to shake her pursuers off. She regularly cast glances behind her back to check if the group of vampires running after her was still on her heels or not. Despite the Slayer's speed and agility, they were not slowing down nor showing any sign of giving in.

Faith's run lead her to a small clearing almost perfectly round and she looked up to see the dark sky above her head. As she did so, she missed a root emerging from the ground and heavily tripped over it. She sat up quickly and turned round to see her pursuers only a few feet away from her, their features contorted with the wild joy to finally get a hold on her.

Faith sat back as quickly as possible, pushing on her hands, as the vampires swept down on her with delight. But as they were finally only at arm reach, a wall of flames suddenly appeared between the Slayer and the vampires, which made them yelling in terror. Faith put an arm across her face to protect herself from the heat and stood up. She stepped back to have a better view: the vampires were surrounded by a circle of fire. Tara then caught up with Faith, hurrying from the woods behind the brunette.

"Are you okay?" she anxiously asked while looking the Slayer over from head to toes. "You gave me such a fright."

"I'm fine, just got the end of my shoes a little burned" Faith replied with a smile. "Perfect timing Tar. And great idea by the way"

"I'm trying"

The girls gave one last look at the inferno and took back the path Faith had followed to get there. Behind them, the remaining vampires were trying as best as possible to huddle together at the center of the circle formed by the flames while these were getting inexorably closer.

"You sure it's ok to let this mess here?" Faith asked.

"Absolutely" Tara answered. "In a minute, there won't be any trace of fire left, or any vampire for that matter"

"Perfect then. I feel like eating a giant pizza, what about you?"

_Thursday_

Punching on her right, elbowing on her left, striking with her knee in front of her, headbutting behind, staking on her right. Dodging. Forward roll. Faith was having a great time, fighting with a half-smile on her face, a lively look in her eyes, focused on her objectives. She seemed to twirl around between the vampires who disappeared one after the other thanks to her precise staking skills.

It did not matter that they were way more than her. Everything was working against them and everything for her: if she unfortunately let her stake drop to the floor or if they managed to make her drop it, it reappeared in her hand immediately. If one of them managed to make the most of their number, or of a second of inattention from the Slayer, to slip behind her and try to bite her, he just could not, as an invisible barrier was protecting the brunette.

Under these conditions, the Slayer's superiority became quickly obvious and she decimated the demons without giving them any chance.

When she was sure she was done, she rubbed her hands together to brush them off the dust, then walked toward Tara who was waiting for her at a distance, perched on a tombstone a little away from the fight.

"Fantastic your little tricks Tar!" the Slayer exclaimed, addressing her friend.

She considered the tired features of the blonde and added:

"But exhausting right?"

"It is," Tara acknowledged. "I think it's better to keep that in case of an emergency and not for a whole night"

"It's fine with me," Faith approved. "It ain't any fun anyway"

Tara rolled her eyes before leaping off her perch and following close behind the Slayer.

"And now?" the blonde asked.

"There're two or three shabby bars a few street away from here. The kind of place vampires love."

"So do we, then"

Friday

"You sure it's a good idea? " Tara asked anxiously while scanning her surroundings.

She and Faith were leaning against an old rusty irony guardrail along a steep hiking path and they were watching below as a group of various demons were climbing toward them.

"You said you could do it," replied Faith. "You can or not?"

"I can do it," Tara answered hesitantly, considering the crossbow in her hands.

"It'll be fine then," said Faith as she shouldered her own weapon. "They're within range," she announced. "Let's go. Aim at the head or the heart as a priority"

"You sure they've got hearts?" Tara grumbled.

Faith shrugged and shot her first bolt which perfectly hit the bull's eye, lodging itself in the unique eye of the demon who was leading the group.

"If they don't, aim for the head the second time," Faith replied while firing another time. "And you should shoot now; it's not time for chatting!"

Tara did not need to be told twice and armed her crossbow with a bolt in her turn. The bolt went off whereas the blonde did not even pull the trigger and mowed one of the demons down in the center of his forehead.

"Well done!" Faith exclaimed happily as she armed her weapon again.

Meanwhile, bolts from Tara's crossbow were following on at a dizzying rate and every one of them was hitting the bull's eye, though sometimes following strange curves before reaching their targets.

"I'm shooting down more of them than you are Faith!" Tara exclaimed when the group of demons was reduced only to a few individuals trying to run away from them.

"But I owe my shoots only to my own skills!" Faith replied as she came and stood in Tara's line of fire in order to be the one who would shoot down the last remaining demon.

The monster collapsed on the ground and Faith turned to Tara with a smirk on her face.

"And that's it," she announced and raised her hand to Tara.

The blonde clapped the Slayer's hand with her own and concluded:

"Another great success, partner!"

"Anyway, was stupid from my part to try to teach you to fire with a crossbow," Faith said as she swung her weapon on her shoulder.

"That couldn't be clearer" Tara approved, mimicking Faith's gesture.

The brunette grimaced while starting to gather the remaining bolts.

"I have to remind you that you wanted to learn"

"I did not know I could do it with magic at the time"

"Which means you were the one to be a fool!"

"You could have thought about that!"

"I'm not the one into magic!"

"But you're into how to kill demons!"

Their squabbling soon died away in the distance as they went down the hiking path, back to where they came from.

Saturday

"Tara! Tara! "Faith yelled, running around the cemetery, loud enough to wake up the dead or at least the closest neighbors.

"Tara, where are you?" she shouted herself hoarse again.

She turned and turned again on herself several times, scanning her surroundings in search of the blonde.

"Tar…"

The end of her friend's name died on her lips as the witch appeared at the corner of the cemetery, limping slightly, her hair tousled. Faith strode resolutely toward her.

"I'm here, I'm here," Tara said as she came, answering the brunette's calls. "Everything's o…"

"Where the hell were you?" Faith yelled without giving the blonde time to finish. "I told you to stay at the northeast corner, hidden between the statues!"

"Something unforeseen happens" Tara explained calmly. "The vampires split in two groups, one of them was about to take you from the rear, I wanted to…"

"Wanted to what? Wanted to get killed?" spat Faith with irritation.

"To help you" Tara pouted annoyingly.

"If you want to help me, you have to stick to the plan. We had a plan, remember?"

"But something unforeseen was about to happen, I thought…"

"You don't think; you follow the plan," Faith interrupted again sharply. "You have to stick to the plan, I need you to stick to the plan, do you understand that? How am I supposed to keep you alive if you don't stick to the plan?"

Tara crossed her arms over her chest and winced slightly while staring at her friend before sighing with annoyance.

"Okay, okay," she gave in. "I'll stick to the plan from now on. But then, don't come complaining if you die because of it" she grumbled.

"Well, I can't promise." Faith answered seriously.

This drew an amused smile out of the blonde and brightened the Slayer up. Tara then took her arm and walked to the road running alongside the cemetery.

"Let's go and help me to walk" she enjoined Faith to do. "I twisted my ankle AGAIN…"

_Sunday_

Tara was laying down on the bed of this day motel's room, deeply engrossed in a magic book while the television was playing another rerun of the famous TV show 'Friends'. The night was deep black outside and the blonde was only raising her eyes from her reading to cast glances at the wall-clock above the TV. When the door opened to reveal Faith, Tara jumped to her feet as she had waited for this moment to happen for quite some time already.

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed when she caught sight of the Slayer's bruised face and lower lip ripped opened in two. "You're hurt!"

She rushed to meet Faith and the brunette gestured vaguely to tell her it was nothing to be worried about.

"I'm fine," she confirmed.

But Tara forced her to sit and ran to grab the first aid kit before coming back to examine the Slayer's wounds.

"I'm telling you I'm fine," Faith protested, but she let her do so anyway.

"What have done this to you?" Tara asked while she gently cleaned Faith's blooded lip.

The brunette pushed slightly the blonde's hand to be able to answer.

"Just a vampire," she growled. "Took me by surprise at first. But I gave him his lesson afterwards."

"I should have come with you," Tara said. "I could have helped you if you needed it, I could have…"

Faith rolled her eyes and interrupted Tara's monologue.

"It's okay Tar. I didn't need help, it was just a vampire. How do you think I was doing before?"

"I knew it wasn't a good idea. My ankle, it's nothing. Something bad could have happened to you…"

Faith rolled her eyes again, but in the meantime, her face brightened with a fleeting smile.

"I'm telling you it's okay. I'm a Slayer, not a kid."

She freed her face from the witch's hand, took her cotton from her fingers and stood while finishing wiping the blood off her lips. Then she turned her back to Tara and went away toward the window with a smile on her face.


	2. Act 1

The weather was clear and mild; a nice and fresh breeze was blowing above a long sandy beach, stirring up light trails of sand in the process. Faith and Tara were walking by the ocean side by side; the Slayer had even took her shoes off and pulled her trousers up to half her calves and she was walking in the water with her shoes in her hand under her friend's dubious stare.

"How are you doing?" finally asked the blonde. "This water must be freezing cold!"

"It is," Faith confirmed. "But that's what's good. You should give it a try. Well, if you weren't the feeble type!"

"I am not the feeble type," Tara protested.

"Walk in the water with me then," Faith countered with a smirk.

"Oh, I know what you're trying to do, miss Slayer!" Tara giggled while gesturing accusingly toward Faith's nose. "And I'm not playing that game! You're a Slayer; you may not even feel the cold!"

"It's not what you say each time you tell me I might catch a cold!" Faith exclaimed happily while kicking gently the water surface in the style of a soccer player.

"Faith, you're spattering me," Tara protested.

"I hope so," Faith teased her.

As an answer, Tara got away, leaving a meter or so between then from now on.

"You're in a better mood than in my dream of last night," Tara grumbled.

"Oh, you've dreamt about me!" Faith exclaimed cheerfully and faking surprise. "I'm sure it was a very very hot dream!" she added while getting closer to Tara who stepped aside again.

"I'm sorry to have to disappoint you again," Tara firmly countered. "Nothing of that kind. But if I could choose, I'd rather have a hot dream."

"Oh, it really wasn't fun at all then," Faith said, serious again.

"It rarely is when I dream about you," Tara confirmed.

"I can return the compliment" Faith growled. "I hope it won't last forever. Between the Slayer's prophetic dreams and this, I'm not even left alone when I sleep!"

"When I went to say my goodbyes to Mrs Applefresh, she said it should become less frequent until it disappears. But she also said it was hard to tell how long it will take…"

"Great," the Slayer grumbled. "Magic really is useless"

"You didn't say that last night," Tara said.

As Faith was giving her a strange look, she added quickly:

"When I threw that fireball to the vampire attacking you from behind!"

"Oh, this," Faith commented, frowning.

She showed then one of her hair lock whose end was slightly burned:

"I remember," she said in a mocking tone.

"The vampire moved," Tara pleaded. "It wasn't my fault"

"I'm not blaming you," Faith reassured her. "It was well done in fact. With much training, you'll end up missing my hair."

Tara smiled back and crossed her arms over her chest while Faith came back to put her feet in the water again.

"It's a good thing that you're doing magic again, isn't it?" the Slayer asked after a silence.

"I think so," Tara approved. "I feel good anyway. I feel useful."

"Isn't it too much all of a sudden?" Faith questioned again thoughtfully.

As Tara did not answer immediately, the brunette clarified:

"I mean, you didn't want to practice much before…"

"I know," Tara admitted. "But you know, seeing those things again… Seeing my mother again… It's just reminded me what she always told me about magic; it's reminded me all this time I spent with her practising. It made me feel like practising again. And when… when Kira put that spell on you, I had to do something; I couldn't leave you like that. It's reminded me that I was a witch. And that it could be useful. Do you get it?"

Faith nodded after attentively listening to her friend's monologue.

"It's a good thing," she simply commented.

They walked silently for some minutes, only passing a few other walkers, most of them looking at Faith in disbelief or amusingly. Only a single mother glared at her when her kid started to yell that he could go swimming since "the madam over there" did. The remark made the Slayer wince in disgust.

"Madam!" she exclaimed indignantly when the mother and the child were not within earshot anymore. "How old that kid thinks I am?"

Tara giggled but kept any comment she might have thought for herself.

"We should arrive in San Francisco tomorrow afternoon if we don't leave too late," said Faith a little later.

She glanced at Tara who was inhaling the sea air with pleasure without paying attention to her and added hesitantly:

"You know, I was thinking that if you want to, we could go to good-old Sunnydale after our stay in San Francisco. We won't be very far…"

She turned questioningly to her friend, but the blonde's answer, far from being awkward and hesitant as expected, was categorical:

"No,"

"Are you sure?" Faith insisted without even thinking. "You…"

"No," Tara interrupted in the same tone.

The brunette opened her mouth to add something but then Tara turned to her, and the resolution Faith could see in her eyes kept her silent. She shrugged.

"As you want," she said simply.

Then she suddenly changed the subject.

"Splashing about in the water makes me feel like eating a good ice-cream with loads of whipped cream!" she exclaimed happily.

Tara rolled her eyes.

"A good hot waffle sounds more accurate!" she commented.

"A waffle is good too!" Faith replied.

She stepped out of the water and dashed resolutely towards the stalls along the beach and caught Tara's wrist as she did.

"C'mon, it's time for a waffle!"

"I thought we shouldn't waste our money in that kind of things Faith!" Tara protested.

"We earned a little money last week with your lousy magic potions," Faith explained, and calling her magic potions 'lousy' made Tara growl unhappily. "We can afford a waffle or two!"

Tara rolled her eyes again but shrugged and gave in, following the Slayer close as the brunette had released her and strode ahead.

"Don't just take the whipped cream extra!" Faith shouted over her shoulder as she quickened her pace, her hair dancing in the light wind, still holding her shoes in her hand.

Shoes on her feet again, Faith needed both her hands to control her chocolate waffle topped by an indecent amount of whipped cream. Beside her, Tara looked almost pitiful with her tiny pancake with sugar.

"I really don't know how you do to swallow all this," Tara commented between two bites.

"Very simple," Faith answered. "Like this," she concluded while swallowing half the whipped cream at once under Tara's horrified stare.

The blonde grimaced, which obviously made Faith very delighted and she repeated her action with a big smirk and a very rude swallowing noise.

"Faith!" Tara snapped.

The Slayer giggled and gave another bite at her waffle as an answer. Both girls went on walking along the houses lining the long beach, Faith busy with what could be considered her second breakfast of the day, and Tara watching wavelets crashing on the shore. Focused as she was on the ocean's ebb and flow, the blonde did not notice when her friend suddenly stopped and she nearly had a heart attack when the Slayer's iron grip briskly grabbed her wrist to stop her. Tara could not help a small cry and jumped slightly before turning to Faith with questioning eyes.

"You gave me such a start!"

But Faith did not look at her but instead stared at something in front of them. Seeing her so focused, Tara turned to what Faith was looking at and jumped slightly again. Not far away from them, only a few meters from the entrance of a house, a human shape was lying still. Faith released Tara and came closer slowly. She bent over the figure and noticed it was the body of a young blonde woman, wrapped in what looked like a tarpaulin. Tara came closer in her turn carefully while Faith watched the body with attention.

"Is she…?" Tara asked.

"Dead, yes," Faith confirmed.

"Vampires ?" Tara questioned again upon seeing Faith frowning.

"No," the brunette answered immediately. "No bite on her neck," she added, gesturing to said-neck.

She was about to pull the tarpaulin to free the body but Tara held her arm.

"Don't touch anything," the witch advised her.

Faith looked upset but she complied.

"We should call the police," Tara said wisely.

Faith shrugged and grumbled her disagreement.

"You want me to call the police? I've been convicted of murder and I'm a fugitive." She spat.

"You think it's a better idea if it's me whereas I'm not even supposed to be alive?" replied the blonde.

They stared at each other in silence, both wavering about what to do. Before either of them had time to submit another idea, they turned their head toward the house nearest to the victim upon hearing the noise of a door being unlocked. Faith stood up instantly, caught Tara's wrist again and dragged her behind her in a small street between two houses. They both flattened themselves against the wall and Faith lightly bent forward to be able to see the body they had just left.

"Do you think he's seen us?" Tara sighed.

Faith did not answer as she watched a man still in his bathrobe exiting his house with a trash bag in his hand. He crossed the distance between the house's door and the gate leading to the beach, and his still sleeping expression made clear he had no idea what he was about to find. He threw the thrash bag in the trash can casually and only when he closed back the can, he caught sight of the tarpaulin on the other side of the gate. The lid noisily fell back on the can and he quickly went out of his backyard after giving a little cry of surprise. He bent over the body, wanted to touch the neck but did not dare, looked right, then left as if what to do could suddenly appear in front of him, then he admitted he was powerless and came back hastily in his house, calling his wife.

"Mary, Mary! Give me the phone!"

When he had disappeared from sight and the door had slammed behind him, Faith turned to Tara and both friends exchanged a relieved glance.

"He hasn't seen we were there," Tara commented.

"It's better this way," Faith confirmed.

"What do we do?" the blonde asked. "Do you think a demon did this?"

Faith shrugged.

"It's hard to tell, I haven't seen much." She laconically answered. "She had strange marks on her face and her neck that were not vampires' bites. But it could be anything."

They turned together toward the body they could only make out from where they were, then looked at each other again.

"Let's clear off before the police arrive." Faith concluded, dragging Tara along. "There's nothing we can do."

Tara nodded and the girls went away, taking care to remain unnoticed.

Tara was energetically rubbing her hair with a small white towel and looked at the ocean out of the window of the motel, while Faith was going through jobs advertisements in a local newspaper. The Slayer was lying on the bed in her birthday's suit. On the floor by the bed lay a pile of soaked clothes while others were drying, hanging at the bathroom door or on the backs of the two chairs of the room. The TV was playing in background but none of the girls was paying attention to it.

"Shower was good?" Faith asked kindly.

"A blessing," Tara replied without turning to her. "That rain storm has soaked me to the bones"

Outside, rain was still pouring down and the sky had turned a pale grey. Faith put the newspaper aside and dashed toward the bathroom.

"My turn then," she concluded as she closed the door behind her.

Once the Slayer under the shower, Tara gave up her contemplation of the ocean under the rain, stopped to dry her hair and came by the bed where she flopped down at the place Faith had just freed. As the Slayer was doing before her, the blonde took the newspaper and browsed quickly the jobs ads page.

"Have you found something interesting?" She shouted for her friend to hear her despite the noise of the running water.

"Uh?" she got as an answer.

"Forget it," replied Tara, and Faith did not insist.

Tara settled herself comfortably on the bed with the wall in her back and resumed her skimming through the jobs ads while glancing at the TV from time to time, though the noise of the shower almost drowned out the sound of the television. Faith soon was done and switched off the water taps before appearing at the bathroom door, wrapped in a large towel.

"Have you said something?" she asked.

"I just asked if you had found something interesting in this," Tara repeated, waving about the newspaper.

"I've seen a few th…" Faith started, moving forward in the room.

But Tara interrupted her sharply.

"Oh, watch this!" she exclaimed, showing the TV and not paying any attention to the Slayer's answer.

Faith frowned with annoyance to the change of subject but she nevertheless turned to the TV as Tara asked. On the screen, she recognized the house in front of which they had found a corpse in the morning. The brunette flopped down on the bed, and just as her friend, gave her undivided attention to the reporter who had just appeared on screen with a grave suitable expression on his face.

"…there is every reason to believe…" he was saying in his mike. "… that this young woman is a new victim of the killer of the 'holding the night' as the residents call him now."

"What's the 'holding the night'?" Faith grumbled.

The answer to this question was given the second after when the storefront of a bar with a neon sign reading 'Holding the night' appeared on screen.

"The owner has still not commented on this new murder committed not far from his bar but has already confirmed the victim's presence at the 'holding' yesterday evening to the police."

The scene shifted from the bar to three pictures of young women around the same age. The pictures were aligned on screen, each of them topped with a date.

"This new victim is the third one of the killer of the 'holding the night'. The police are very reluctant to give any detail about the murders but it seems this murderer is not an ordinary one and the police have a lot of trouble to determine his profile…"

The news went on, from the reporter to the testify of the man who had discovered the body, then to a police officer saying nothing could be revealed, but Faith was not listening anymore.

"A murderer not ordinary?" she said, turning to Tara who was trying to listen to the end of the TV report. "Might be our business."

Tara shrugged to show her ignorance.

"Maybe," she said, obviously not convinced. "We don't have anything to decide either way"

"Well, we'll try to find out then," Faith concluded. "Tonight, we're going to the 'holding the night'"

"And what are you gonna do?" Tara asked in a dubious tone. "Ask the clients if they have seen a demon walking around?"

"Hey!" Faith protested in an offended tone. "First, I'll rely on my Slayer's senses to see if I can find a demon around. If I do and if it's our killer, I'll slay it. If not, I'll ask him kindly if it knows anything about our killer and then I'll slay it. You could also do your magic trick to see if you can find the murderer. And…well, that's a good start"

"And what if the murderer is not a demon but just a murderer?" Tara asked.

"In that case, we'll just spend an evening at the bar," Faith replied. "Which can only do us good anyway."

She stood and went back toward the bathroom after rummaging her travel bag.

"And get all dressed up Tar," she said above her shoulder. "We'll try to find you someone!"

She closed the door behind her; just in time to avoid a shoe Tara had just nimbly thrown in her direction.


	3. Act 2

The "Holding the night" was a nice place, Faith thought when she entered the bar a little later on this evening. Of course, the brunette Slayer used to hang out in bars and nightclubs way more noisy and crowded than this one, and for once in a long time, she wouldn't have said no to one of these nights spent forgetting everything even herself, under blinding spots and deafening music, dancing all night till morning. But the series of murders committed around the bar had obviously quietened the ambiance. The bar was far from full and only a few patrons were dancing on the floor. Most people were sitting on low stools or on imitation leathered seats around small tables placed around the dance floor under wide purple curtains. Others were leaning on the bar, and appeared to be deeply engrossed in their conversations, probably theorizing about the identity of the mysterious killer.

Faith and Tara did not remain unnoticed and everyone in the bar seemed to look at them when they walked in and walked over the bar, which made Tara rather uncomfortable whereas Faith did not feel indifferent to the attention they were getting. Faith perfectly knew it wasn't only due to the fact they were two beautiful and unknown young women walking in there for the first time. The Slayer quickly noticed that there was not a single woman alone in the bar: every young woman was surrounded by groups of men. Two girls coming in alone here just after the third murder of a bar's client had been announced probably felt quite weird to the local community. Pretending not noticing all eyes turned to them, Faith walked to the bar casually with Tara on her heels. Both friends sat on a bar stool and a middle-aged man, half bald and with round cheekbones and a sparkling gaze which probably made him look jolly in other circumstances - quickly went to meet them to ask what they wanted to drink. Faith ordered a beer and to her great surprise, Tara asked for a pineapple Malibu.

"Drinking now? "Faith said with a frown as the manager walked away to get their drinks.

"You said you would try to find someone for me. What would I look like if I'm drinking orange juice?" Tara replied almost seriously.

Faith looked at the blonde in disbelief for a moment, unable to decide if she was joking or not. The barman's voice made her come back to reality.

"Here is your order, ladies" he announced as he put their glasses in front of them.

Faith thanked him and paid for the drinks. Then she turned to the dance floor to watch the dancers while already swallowing a mouthful of her beer.

"You're new in town, aren't you?" asked the barman.

Faith turned to him again and nodded.

"Is this that obvious?" she asked with a half-smile.

The man shrugged before answering in a bitter tone.

"Girls don't come here alone these days"

"Bad business?" the Slayer questioned.

"When people start to call a serial killer like your bar, it's not as advertising as you might think"

"I bet," Faith commented, before carefully asking. "But those girls used to come here, uh?"

The barman gave her an annoyed look but nevertheless answered:

"A lot of young people in town come here" he replied dryly. "Well, all young people in town come here in fact." He clarified after a silence. "Where are you from, yourself?" he then asked in a nicer voice.

Faith didn't get mad at him for his brief bad mood but wavered about what to answer. It wasn't that she didn't want to answer, but she wasn't sure which place was the right answer.

"Cleveland," she said after a second. "But I'm from Boston, and Tara here, is from Minnesota."

Saying this, she pointed at the blonde who was watching the scene while drinking in silence.

"I'm from California," she corrected between two mouthfuls.

Faith arched a questioning eyebrow, but the barman did not give her time to protest.

"California?" he repeated, turning frankly to Tara. "Where in California? I'm guessing South, Los Angeles. I very well see you working for the cinema or the television industry!" He exclaimed with a giggle.

"North of California," countered Tara. "Sunnydale."

The name seemed to ring a bell for the man but he did not answer all at once, thinking probably about where he had heard about this town. His eyes opened wide in surprise when he remembered.

"Sunnydale? That town that collapsed all of a sudden about a year ago?" he asked.

Then, he went on without waiting for an answer:

"No wonder you had to move to Cleveland." He commented more for himself than for the girls.

"Dad," then called a voice from the other side of the bar.

The three of them turned together where the voice was coming from. A young waiter, busy with a large group of clients, was looking pointedly at the man between two orders.

"My son," the man commented. "Snowed under his work, as always," he said in a sorry tone, rolling his eyes. "Have a good evening, ladies"

And he went away toward his son.

Faith and Tara remained alone and watched her surroundings in silence for a few minutes before Tara asked:

"So, are you feeling something?"

The Slayer shrugged.

"Dunno," she grumbled while casting new glances around. "And you? What about the magic?"

"Nothing special," Tara answered. "Most people feel kind of worried; this ambiance doesn't help to truly feel things"

Faith slightly grimaced and swallowed a new mouthful of her beer while turning again to the dance floor where a few dancers were hoofing it shyly.

"The way this guy is dancing would make him my main suspect," she chuckled, pointing to a young man particularly awkward among his friends.

That comment earned her a severe raised eyebrow from Tara.

"Not everyone can be good at dancing," she protested.

"Well, it's not like it's complicated," Faith replied. "You just have to… Do you want me to show you?" she interrupted herself.

"Please don't," Tara answered immediately and firmly.

Faith grinned then pretended to pout for a second.

"Well, let's not forget our other goal for tonight," the Slayer resumed in a mocking tone while looking around the bar. "A girl to your liking in the crowd?" she added, turning to Tara with a knowing smile.

The blonde rolled her eyes and sighed annoyingly.

"Again? Will you ever stop with this?"

"What do you think of the blonde over there?" Faith asked, totally ignoring her friend's irritation, and pointing to a young blonde woman wearing an extremely short skirt and who was provocatively dancing between three boys.

Tara looked at Faith in disbelief and the brunette giggled.

"Ok, not your type"

"What about this one over there?" the Slayer went on, pointing to another woman across the bar.

But Tara pretended to not listen and refused to look where Faith was showing, watching deeply her drink with mock interest instead.

"And her?" Faith resumed, not discouraged at all.

Still no reaction from the witch.

"Ok, it's true that you're more into redheads…" Faith commented, almost more for herself than for Tara. "Let's see if there's a hot redhead around"

"Why have you hesitated when the barman asked where you were from earlier?" suddenly asked Tara.

Faith frowned at the unexpected question.

"Don't you try to change the subject Tar!" she protested, waving an accusing finger toward the blonde. "I know what you're trying to do!"

"I'm not doing anything!" Tara replied. "I was just wondering if you had a particular reason to be discreet about that."

Serious again, Faith shrugged and perched again on the stool she had deserted to get a better view of the crowd in order to find a possible date for Tara.

"I didn't want to be discreet about anything," the Slayer answered between two mouthfuls of beer. "It's just when he asked, I wondered if he meant the place where I grew up or the place where I live these days. And as I don't live anywhere precise, I thought about the last place I've spent some time. That's all."

A brief silence passed before Tara asked thoughtfully:

"Don't you miss that?"

"What?"

"Having a place where to live? A place to call home?"

Faith appeared to think about the question then casually shrugged.

"Dunno," she said unconvincingly. "Sometimes I do," she added shortly after. "I think I may be nearly done with the appeal of living in cheap motel rooms"

"Or maybe I'm getting older," she said mockingly after a brief pause.

It drew her trademark smile out of Tara.

"When do you think you'll go back to Cleveland?" she asked.

"Coming back to Cleveland?" Faith repeated with surprise. "Why should I come back to Cleveland?"

"You're a Slayer, aren't you? Isn't Cleveland the place where most Slayers are?"

The brunette snickered before swallowing what was left of her beer in one shot.

"Y'know, there are Slayers all around the world now. Cleveland doesn't have the monopoly of monsters."

"But it's where the council and the main hellmouth are, right?"

"You're the oldest Slayer, except for Buffy; you should be there, shouldn't you?" Tara insisted as Faith did not answer.

"Pfff", she finally said. "Not a fan about being there with all those Watchers behind my back, just waiting for me to screw up again"

"I'm sure Mr Giles doesn't see things like that," Tara protested.

"Giles may be an exception," Faith admitted.

"And you're a great Slayer, Faith," Tara resumed solemnly after briefly wavering. "You shouldn't be afraid of what these people think. They don't risk their lives every night, they haven't seen what you've done for months."

The brunette slightly turned to her friend and stared at her silently for a few seconds before shrugging.

"What would I do there anyway?" she grumbled. "We're doing as much here, you and I, aren't we?"

"I'm certain you'd make a perfect leader," Tara replied without hesitation, before adding in a lower and faltering tone.

"I saw how you got along with Kira, when we still thought she was a Slayer and…"

Faith rolled her eyes and missed to choke at the mention of Kira.

"Bad example Tar," she hissed between her teeth.

"I'm just saying that you don't have to run away from these people, that you deserve as much as any other to be part of that organization and to…"

"Don't waste your time Tar, I get it," Faith interrupted, trying not to sound too harsh.

Tara fell silent and stopped insisting, which she showed Faith with a knowing nod. Faith nodded in turn to thank her then gestured to the barman when he turned his head toward them. The son of the manager with whom the girls had talked a little earlier, hurried to come and see what they wanted. He was of average height, probably hardly taller than Faith, with dark blond hair and dark almond-shaped eyes, nicely ordinary.

"Ladies?" he politely asked with an open smile.

Faith smiled back then glanced at Tara's drink which was almost empty then gestured to their two glasses.

"Same thing, please."

He nodded and hurried to the other end of the bar, failing to see Tara frowning heavily at her friend.

"Faith!" she snapped. "I thought we'd better avoid unnecessary expenses!"

"Expenses? What expenses?"

"The drinks!" Tara exclaimed impatiently facing the brunette's mocking innocent expression.

"Don't worry Tar," Faith said in an evasive tone. "It's obvious you've never seen me in a bar before! We won't pay a single dollar anymore tonight!"

She drank two long mouthfuls from her beer then stood while putting back her glass on the counter.

"Well, anyway, I think it's time to dance. You coming?"

She faced Tara with her hand half-raised, in a way that could be either interrogative or encouraging. But the blonde shook her head strongly and immediately.

"No, thank you, I'm going to stay here."

"You sure?" Faith insisted, pouting a little. "You know, you'd have a better chance of finding someone moving your body on the dance floor than by staying stuck to the bar"

The blonde rolled her eyes with exasperation, which made Faith chuckle.

"Go away!" Tara scolded and Faith did as she was told without further ado with a wide smile on her lips.

When she came back nearly forty-five minutes later with a new beer in hand, dripping with sweat after having danced all this time without any rest, she found Tara in deep conversation with the young waiter and she grinned to herself as she noticed how interested in Tara he looked. The Slayer flopped down noisily on her stool and emptied her glass, not caring if her return had interrupted the ongoing conversation. Which of course, was the case. Slightly distracted by Faith's tactless arrival, he half turned to her and gazed at her hesitantly, as he expected her to say something. The brunette smirked when she noticed and casually waved to them before saying between two mouthfuls of beer:

"Go on whatever you were doing, pretend I'm not there"

The waiter appeared to waver for a second or two, but he seemed to have decided to do as he was invited when he was interrupted by very telling gestures from his father standing at the other end of the bar.

"Sorry, we're going to close, I gotta go." He apologized to Tara. "Maybe see you later."

And he went away to go back to work.

"I thought you were into girls?" Faith giggled as she came closer to Tara.

"Who knows what dying can do to a girl," Tara replied in the same tone while sipping her drink.

"You should have told me then, wouldn't have lost my time trying to find a nice girl for you here!"

"Like you were doing that for me! You were having a lot of fun!"

"How would you know? You were in a deep passionate conversation with the waiter!"

"Jealous?" Tara asked with a smirk.

"Well, I'm just thinking it would be far more logical that you try to hit on those girls and I go for the waiter than the other way around!"

"Hey!" Tara shouted in a shocked voice. "I was only talking to him and at least **I** was trying to get some info about the murders! I thought that's why we've come here in the first place, not for you coming out of the closet!"

"Oh, what a big mouth you're having!" Faith tittered, obviously in a good mood. "Two drinks and you can't stop talking!"

"Talking about drink, where have you found that one?" the blonde asked, pointing with her chin to the glass Faith had brought back from the dance floor.

"Someone offered it to me. Told you I was good at this!" the Slayer answered, finishing off said-drink.

"We gotta go," Tara said then.

"Already?" Faith protested. "Why?"

"It's about to close," Tara reminded her, gesturing to the waiter and pointing at the empting bar around them.

"It's already that late?" Faith grumbled. "Dunno where the time went. We should have come earlier"

"The waiter told me it closes later tomorrow night. We'll come back then."

Faith nodded.

"There're two drinks left to pay." Tara reminded as they stood to leave in their turn.

"Don't worry, my call"

Faith walked over toward the waiter who came to meet her when he saw her coming his way. Tara watched her friend talking a few minutes with him, bending at his ear over the bar. She saw her giving him small laughs to which he answered; then she witnessed some nods, other words exchanged, a new smile and finally Faith took her leave and came back toward Tara with a satisfied smile plastered on her face. The blonde was waiting for her, arms crossed over her chest and grimaced when her friend announced casually as she reached her:

"It's ok, we can get going"

"And you haven't paid"

"Not a cent," Faith confirmed proudly as the women left the bar.

"So what? A few smiles and that's it?" Tara grumbled.

"Oh, no!" Faith chuckled. "I had to promise you will hang out with him when we come back tomorrow!"

"Faith!" Tara exclaimed, slapping her lightly on her shoulder.

Faith offered a knowing smile as an answer.

"What? He's nice, right?"

Tara shrugged with a mocking annoyed look on her face and quickened her pace, pretending trying to shake her friend off.

"C'mon, tell me what you've learned tonight!" Faith called out after her and she quickened her pace too to catch up with her as they went away toward their motel in the silent night.

"Not sure how it's supposed to help," Faith commented the morning after at breakfast.

Both friends were sitting at a table in the restaurant of their current motel and were enjoying the inclusive breakfast buffet of the place. Faith in particular and with no surprise, gave the word "enjoying" all its meaning, having piled up as many muffins, pancakes and other sweets as their little table could hold. Tara had just gone for a tea and picked at Faith's helping from time to time without the Slayer really noticing.

"It's a start," countered Tara.

Faith wanted to interrupt her, but her mouth was too full for that and she had to let her carry on.

"At least, I tried to find out something, we can't say the same about you!"

"You're wrong," Faith protested when she finally overcame her blueberry muffin. "One of the girl I tried to hit on for you knew one of the victim."

"And confirmed she was at the bar the night she died."

"The waiter told the same thing," added Tara.

"The waiter, who's very much into you," Faith commented wryly.

"If I'm not mistaken, you're the one he offered the drinks to."

"He probably did for your beautiful blue eyes!" Faith chuckled.

It earned her to be sent a piece of muffin in full face, but thanks to her Slayer's ability, Faith swallowed it mid-air, which made her laugh even more, to Tara's great displeasure.

"Let's get serious Faith," the blonde protested and frowned at her friend. "What are we gonna do?"

"What are you suggesting?" Faith replied. "Do I have to remind you who's the brain?"

Tara rolled her eyes, wavered for a few seconds, then made up her mind to accept the role Faith was suggesting she assumed.

"Maybe you could find a vampire or two and threaten them to make them burn in the sunlight if they don't give you some intel about the demons around here?" the blonde offered. "Meanwhile, I'll try to find the local news paper archives and learn some more about the previous victims?"

"Sounds like a plan," the brunette approved. "Just give me time to be done with my brownies and we're going." She added between two bites of said-brownies.

Tara rolled her eyes and sank into her chair.

"Of course Faith," she said in an amused-ironic tone. "Wouldn't want you to be starving"

The Slayer gave her the hint of a smile and swallowed an almost full brownie before standing. She gathered the last remaining brownie and muffin in her left hand and gestured to Tara to follow her with her right one. The blonde did as she was instructed and both friends went out of the restaurant.

"You can finish you know," Tara said, once they were out.

"I'm good Tar," Faith assured. "I'll finish on my way. Do you want some?" she asked, waving the blueberry muffin under the witch's nose.

Tara refused with a slight grimace.

"I'm already full," she explained.

Faith shrugged and gave a good bite into the muffin.

"So, we're meeting at the motel at noon?" the Slayer suggested.

"You wouldn't miss lunchtime!" Tara said sarcastically with her trademark smile.

"Exactly!" Faith answered happily. "Good luck with your research, see you later!" she added while getting away.

"Be careful!" Tara shouted to her back, before leaving in the opposite direction.

Though always very welcome, that advice wasn't really useful to Faith. As she expected, she didn't find any demons bar – always useful to get some information – and the only two vampires she got a hold of did not last long enough to be any kind of a threat. Using her legendary persuasive force, Faith made each of them talk about the events of the 'Holding the night' without great difficulty, but she didn't learn anything worth of interest from these heated exchanges. So, she came back to the motel nearly two hours later, empty-handed and annoyed to say the least.

She felt happy to notice that Tara was already back and found the blonde sitting at the desk under the wide window of their room, reading a pile of photocopies. When she entered, the witch looked up immediately from her documents and checked her out from head to toes.

"I'm five by five," the Slayer said, preceding the blonde's question.

She threw her weapons casually on the bed before flopping down tiredly on the mattress in her turn.

"Have you found something interesting?" asked Tara.

"Not a damn thing," Faith answered in a bored tone.

"Not a single vampire?"

"Oh yes," Faith said, shrugging. "But except mentioning there were weird things happening around this bar, nothing precise. And yet I've tried everything I could."

"I'm sure you have," Tara approved.

"What about you?"

"I got every press article I've found about the case" the blonde responded, gesturing to the pile of documents on the desk. "Was reading them. Some interesting stuff in there."

"Interesting stuff like what exactly?"

The Slayer stood again and came to stand behind Tara to be able to read above her shoulder.

"To begin with, I've learned there was a link between the first and third victims" she said, waving a piece of paper under Faith's nose. "They were sisters."

"Great," the Slayer grumbled, grabbing the sheet Tara was holding her. "Great for the parents."

"They did not live long enough to see that," the blonde answered. "They died in a car accident two years before the eldest was killed. Tabloids made full use of the story of this family."

"I bet they did," the Slayer commented, while quickly scanning the article.

She gave the paper back to Tara after glancing at the two pictures on it.

"So, okay, they were sisters, that's sad and everything. But how is this useful to us?" the brunette asked, a hint of impatience in her voice. "From what I've read, every single customer has been carefully interrogated, without any luck."

"I know, I know," Tara approved. "But the police did not look for what we're looking for."

"Which is what?" Faith grumbled.

"A clue telling us that those murders have something to do with the supernatural!" Tara exclaimed in an obvious tone.

"So? Have you found some?" Faith replied. "Don't see how the fact they were sisters…"

"Yep," Tara confirmed. "The fact they were sisters is just a detail, but look at this."

Saying this, she was holding another press article to Faith, this one showing in the center a large picture of a crowd gathered in front of the 'Holding the night'. The image did not inspire anything particular to Faith at first sight but seeing how Tara was looking at her questioningly, she stared at the picture with attention to try to discover whatever the blonde had found interesting about this photo. But despite her poor efforts to focus, she quickly gave up and gave the picture back to Tara.

"What's interesting about it?" she asked, slightly annoyed. "I'm only seeing people gathered in front of the bar."

"Well, you've got that right," Tara approved ironically as she took back the picture. "But look at the bar's sign," she added, showing said-sign on the image.

Faith did as she was instructed. Next to the sign above the entrance door and showing the name of the bar in neon letters, another sign had been added, but to Faith, it only looked like a heap of intertwined branches.

"Looks like a beaver dam," she commented with a pout. "Am I right?"

Tara could not help but chuckle at this unexpected answer but immediately returned to serious mode to correct the brunette.

"No, sorry," she said gently. "It's not."

"What is it then?" Faith asked impatiently. "Spill the beans; you're burning to tell me!"

"It's the sign of a demonic brotherhood!" Tara answered triumphantly.

"A what?" Faith questioned, but the word 'demonic' had been enough to attract her attention.

"There are dozens of them," Tara explained. "Humans or group of humans making deals with demons in exchange for money or power most often."

She grabbed one of her magic books which was opened but concealed under the photocopied articles and held it to Faith. The Slayer took the book and read the title of the double-page that Tara was presenting her: 'Most common demonic brotherhoods'. Then her gaze scanned the page up to the picture Tara was specifically showing.

"It's not exactly the same symbol as the bar," Faith noticed. "Even if I have to admit they do resemble each other."

"It's a mirrored version then turned a quarter to the right," Tara explained. "It's not exactly subtle."

Faith looked at her a second dumbfounded then her gaze went from the picture of the bar to the book's symbol as she obviously tried to process the operation Tara had just described in her head.

"Let's say you're right," she finally said. "So, that would mean that the managers of the bar made a deal with a demon for whatever reason and feed it with victims?"

"That's a possibility." Tara answered.

Then she gave Faith another article. This one was titled: "The 'holding the night's sign changes!". Under the title, a picture was showing the manager's son -the young waiter who had offered two drinks to Faith the night before- posing proudly under the brand new sign above the entrance door. The Slayer skimmed through the article quickly and only one bit of sentence attracted her attention "…the new sign drawn by the manager's son…"

"The manager's son has…" she began.

"I know, "Tara interrupted. "The manager also mentions that it was his son's idea to change the sign. And there's more."

She took another press article page from her pile for Faith to read. This time, it was a list of wedding and engagement announcements from a paper. One specific announcement had been circled in red.

"Jason J. Petterson Jr and Rebecca Howling are getting married on Saturday," Faith read out loud.

"Our waiter and our first victim," Tara clarified. "And look at the announcement date and at the date of the article about the sign change."

Faith did as instructed. There was one week between the two.

"So, what are you thinking? Some kind of initiatory ritual?" she asked with a disgusted grimace. "The kind where he gives his bride as offering to seal his deal?"

Tara nodded.

"It would be a classic in that sort of things. Never met any enemy of this kind before?"

The Slayer shook her head, then appeared to give some thought to the question.

"Well, I didn't," she confirmed just after. "But I think B already met that sort of nut-jobs."

"Not surprising," Tara resumed. "Unfortunately, it's rather common."

"But what's the point for the demon?" Faith asked with an annoyed pout. "It doesn't make any sense, it could go and eat those girls all alone."

"Not always," Tara countered, shaking her head. "Some demons don't have a direct access to our world, and these deals allow them either to enter, or to gain victims."

Faith flopped onto the mattress again and smiled.

"What's funny?" Tara asked, surprised.

"You," Faith answered immediately. "All this stuff you know. You really hanged out too much with the scoobies y'know !"

Tara discreetly smiled to that comment but did not answer.

"So, what are we doing?" Faith resumed, seeing her friend remained silent. "Going to the bar tonight, grabbing our new friend the waiter and nicely convincing him to tell us where he's hiding his demon?"

Tara chuckled at the word 'nicely' and nodded.

"It's a way to proceed," she approved.

"Seeing another?" Faith asked.

Tara appeared to waver a short moment before briefly nodding. She turned round from Faith again to gather three new articles she then lined up in front of her friend. Each of them displayed a picture of a smiling young woman under grim titles.

"Look," Tara said.

"What?" grumbled Faith annoyingly, obviously not decided to look for whatever Tara was trying to show her.

"Here are our three victims," Tara explained gently. "Don't you notice anything?"

As Faith pouted, the blonde resumed quickly:

"They're all blonde"

"And what about that?"

"And I'm blonde too."

"And wh…"

"And you said the waiter looked interested in me," Tara interrupted. "We could use th.."

"Using you as a bait?" Faith cut her short, at last seeing where Tara was going with that. "Not a question. Remember when we said you wouldn't serve as bait again?"

"Well, we said that quite some times…" Tara started.

"No way," Faith replied. "We know it's him, I'm gonna make him squeal without you taking any risk!"

"But I…"

"No buts. It's no."

"And as a plan B?"

"We'll look for a plan B if plan A fails. End of story."

"Ok," admitted the blonde, sighing. "As you want."


	4. Act 3

That very same night, Faith and Tara entered the 'Holding the night' about one hour after its opening. Many patrons were already there, leaning on the bar, sitting around the coffee tables lining the dance floor or already dancing around. Despite the muggy heat of the bar, Faith kept her leather jacket to be able to conceal the two short daggers at her belt. After glancing at the crowd, both friends marched resolutely toward the bar and looked for the waiter from the night before. Faith quickly became annoyed when she noticed he was nowhere in sight.

"Where's our new friend?" she grumbled.

"Maybe it's his day off?" Tara suggested. "Or he starts his day later?"

Faith looked around again then glanced at her watch with an annoyed look on her face.

"Guess we'll have to wait and see," she said, perching herself on a nearby stool.

Tara did the same and just like Faith, she started to search for any clue that her demonic assumption was right. Several silent minutes of watching passed before the bartender was free and came to take their orders. Like the night before, Faith ordered a beer and Tara a pineapple Malibu.

"Drinking while on duty?" the blonde smirked, once the drinks were in front of them.

"You did not know that Slayers can hold their drink much better than the average?"

"Is there anything that Slayers doesn't have better than the average?" Tara asked with a smile.

"Hum…" Faith pretended to think about it. "Life expectancy?" she suggested after a brief pause.

Tara's smile vanished from her face, as the implication of what Faith had just said, sank in. The Slayer shrugged and smirked in turn.

"Just kidding Tar, take it easy. Not planning to die any time soon."

"It was stupid of me," Tara apologized.

"Forget it, just kidding," Faith insisted.

She swallowed a few mouthfuls of her beer while watching her surroundings in case the waiter might arrive. Tara just remained attentive as well without touching her drink, until she decided to take action, tired of seeing Faith fidgeting on her seat.

"Do you want me to ask the manager if he's going to come tonight?" she suggested.

"Great idea," Faith admitted.

Tara left her stool and walked away toward the other end of the bar where the manager was taking the orders of a group of young men. As Faith was watching the blonde waiting patiently for the owner to be done to be able to talk to him, she suddenly turned around just before a young man shyly tapped her shoulder. Surprised to see her turning to him even before he could draw her attention, he jumped a little to the brunette's great amusement.

"Yeah?" she said casually while eying the young man from head to toes.

He was around her age or Tara's, and rather good-looking, the Slayer decided, and on that conclusion, she put a charming smile on her lips and turned frankly to him.

"Hum, hey," he greeted her, obviously embarrassed. "May I offer you a drink?" he finally asked after a short moment of thinking.

Faith grabbed her beer on the counter and waved it under his nose with a knowing smile.

"Already got one, but maybe when it's empty!"

At first quite disconcerted, he smiled back when he understood that Faith just in fact accepted his offer. More at ease, he went closer and leaned against the bar near the brunette before holding out his hand to her.

"I'm Luke"

Faith slightly and briefly shook his hand.

"And I'm Faith," she answered.

"Not from here?" Luke resumed. "Never seen you around before yesterday night. "

Faith could not help an amused chuckle.

"Looks like someone already noticed me yesterday!" she exclaimed with a frank irony.

"I guess I can't pretend otherwise now," Luke replied just before drinking a mouthful in his own glass. "You're quite noticeable I must say," he then quickly added.

"That's right," Faith confirmed, not embarrassed in the slightest.

Far from being impressed by the brunette's total lack of modesty, Luke became bolder and sat on the stool Tara had deserted a little earlier.

"So, where are you from?" he insisted.

"Here and there," Faith answered in an evasive tone.

This vague answer did not appear to discourage the young man.

"And what are you doing around here? New in town? Holidays? Visiting some relative? "

"Not at all, I'm just passing through,"

"We all are," he joked. "Just for a more or less long time."

Faith did not answer and sipped at her beer.

"What about you? Coming here often? " She asked after.

"I've grown up here if you're asking where I'm from," he said after wavering briefly. "And I come quite often to the 'Holding' if you're asking if I hang around here often."

Faith was about to answer something but she was interrupted by Tara's return. The blonde came to stand beside the brunette with her arms crossed over her chest, glaring pointedly at Luke and his stool.

"He's there," she said without warning. "He's unpacking stuff in the stockroom in the little street behind the bar"

"Who's there?" asked Luke, a little abashed by Tara's breaking into the conversation.

"Sorry handsome, "Faith answered. "Duty calls. See you later. "

Then, without giving him time to answer, the Slayer slid down her stool and followed Tara in the crowd toward the exit.

"Good call, Tar," she complimented when she caught up with the blonde. "You've been efficient."

"Thought it was YOUR job?" Tara grumbled.

"It is, so what?" Faith asked, surprised. "What do you think we're doing right now?"

"I was looking for info, you were flirting," Tara clarified, rather dryly.

Faith rolled her eyes and smirked.

"He was hitting on me," she replied. "It's not my fault if I'm hot and guys are all after me."

It was Tara's turn to roll her eyes but she refrained herself from commenting as both friends went out in the street. A few patrons were standing in front of the bar, some smoking cigarettes, others probably waiting for friends before going in.

"The manager told me to go on the left," Tara said as she met Faith's questioning gaze.

The girls went in said-direction and turned in the first street they found only a dozen feet away from there. Narrow and short, the street was a dead-end only nimbly lit by a single street lamp and where they recognized the waiter from the night before, throwing cardboard boxes into a bin near an opened door. Focused as he was on what he was doing, he did not notice the girls' arrival, even when they stopped only three feet behind him.

"Hey," Faith said coldly.

Surprised, he jumped sharply before turning round. He looked widely relieved when he saw them and raised his hand toward them in a greeting fashion.

"Hey," he answered. "You startled me!"

He regained his composure, looked around and appeared to realize they could only be there for him. He took a half step toward them.

"What are you doing here?"

"We've been looking for you," Faith replied in a neutral tone.

He smiled proudly at this, but Faith did not give him time to savor the moment.

"We're here to talk about your demonic brotherhood."

"My what?" he said, frowning at the Slayer.

"Your demonic brotherhood," Faith repeated coldly. "You know, that demon you made a deal with and that you feed with innocent girls from time to time."

The young man looked between Faith and Tara once or twice and burst out laughing.

"Is this a joke?" he exclaimed. "It's…"

But Faith did not give him time to finish his sentence. She closed the distance between them, grabbed his collar and pinned him without care to the dustbin behind him.

"Do I look like I'm joking?" she said in such a threatening tone that she could feel the waiter nearly collapsing under her strong grip.

"N-No, you don't," he stammered, his eyes roaming around him frantically.

"Waiting for you demon friend to come and help you?" Faith mocked as she noticed. "How do you make him come? Do you have a code? A ritual? Or you need a new victim for him to come? What did he give you in exchange?"

The young man did not answer and tried to free himself from the Slayer, but she took quite some pleasure to show him how useless it was. She saw a glimmer of terror and surprise passing in his eyes when he realized how strong she was.

"I'm waiting for an answer," Faith grumbled, pressing him a little harder against the bin.

"What are you talking about?" the waiter whispered, and again, he looked around him frantically.

"Stop it," the brunette growled. "We know you sold your bride to a demonic brotherhood, we saw their symbol above your bar, we…"

"You're crazy or what!" the young man exclaimed as he absorbed Faith's words' meaning. "I never sold Rebecca to anyone! You're totally nuts!"

"Listen buddy," Faith resumed dryly. "Either you tell us nicely how we can find your demon, or I'll make you tell me in a not so nice way."

"But I…"

"No buts," Faith interrupted again. "Haven't you noticed that we're no ordinary girls? Feel my strength? I've got a lot of other skills too. And see Tara just behind?"

Saying this, she turned slightly to the blonde and released her grip a bit for the waiter to be able to bend toward Tara too.

"Show him Tara," Faith ordered.

Tara opened then openly her palm to the waiter and conjured a small fireball. The young man's eyes grew impossibly wide in surprise at the sight and the blonde closed her hand, which caused the flames to disappear. Faith grabbed the waiter firmly again immediately.

"Got it? Save your 'it's not me' talk for someone else. We're experts, we recognized the sign you've drawn and…"

"I swear I don't understand a word of what you're saying!" the young man screamed, suddenly overwhelmed by a true panic. "What's your deal? You want to steal stuff in the storeroom? Take whatever you want but leave me alone!"

Faith rolled her eyes and lightly slapped him.

"Give up this crap!" she shouted in her turn. "Or you'll be his next meal!"

"I don't get a word!" he yelled again, which earned him a new slap on the top of his head.

Tara went closer then and watched the scene with interest.

"Faith…" she began in a low voice. "I think that.."

But she never got the chance to finish. A gust of wind as violent as unexpected pushed her violently against the wall behind her and she bit her lip as she choked on the words. The Slayer bit the dust as well and released her prey in the process before crashing in the opened door while the waiter hurt the wall near her then slided to the ground.

Faith was the first one to recover and to stand up. She did not need to look for what was responsible for this phenomenon. A high, stocky figure, with dark skin resembling burned earth, was standing in the middle of the dead-end. Faith immediately looked around for Tara and when she saw that the blonde was slowly standing, her eyes came back to the demon in front of her and a satisfied grin lit up her face.

"Here we are"

The demon produced some guttural growls that Faith considered to be not exactly friendly at first sight, and the monster confirmed that impression quickly as he rushed at her. His heavy footsteps echoed so loudly in the dead-end that the ground slightly shook and Faith imagined a second the whole crowd in the bar going out to see what was going on outside.

She dodged the attack, not as easily as expected as the demon's briskness surprised her.

"Hey! Easy!" she protested. "We haven't even been introduced yet!"

The demon growled loudly again and brought his huge arm down toward the Slayer's head. The brunette rolled on her side.

"Hey, what a way to behave!"

She rolled on the other side to dodge a new blow and found herself on her behind with her legs stretched in front of her and she opened her arms in a dramatic gesture.

"No, seriously? No dramatic speech and all?" she asked in a mocking tone. "No threats?"

A new unhappy growl commented the Slayer's questions and she shrugged:

"Really, nothing?"

From the other side of the place, Tara rolled her eyes and she thought it was time to step in:

"Faith, I don't believe he can do any better,"

"Better than what?" the brunette asked, turning to her friend.

"Better than that," Tara replied as the demon growled again while marching toward the Slayer.

Faith stood and sent her fist right in her opponent's head after spinning on her side. Then she turned to the waiter who was still on the ground near the bar's backdoor.

"How do you communicate with that thi…" she started, addressing him.

But she interrupted herself when she saw how the young man was looking between her and her enemy with a terrified gaze. She did not have time to question him any further as the demon attacked her again with a new loud, guttural cry, obviously meaning he had not liked the Slayer's riposte at all. Faith rolled on the side once more, then swept her opponent's wide legs with her own, but well-built as he was, he hardly staggered to the brunette's great displeasure. Surprised by his resistance, the Slayer had to retreat hurriedly when the demon's huge fist came crashing down strongly where the brunette's head had been a few seconds earlier. She then found herself stuck in the corner of the dead-end, between two walls and the large dustbin where the waiter had been throwing cardboard boxes when they first arrived. Faith quickly weighted her situation up and was about to smash the container in with a kick to get herself free when Tara's voice rang, getting the attention of Faith's opponent, who turned around.

"Hey, simple-minded!" the blonde exclaimed in an unsteady voice. "Come and see over there!"

The witch raised her hand forward and created a new fireball, which definitely switched the demon's attention to Tara. He had hardly took a step toward the blonde when Faith scrambled to her feet, seized her two daggers concealed in her jacket and jumped forward, driving both her weapons in the demon's back up to the hilt. He stopped short, yelled a first time in pain, then a second time when Tara's fireball came crashing on his chest, and finally fell heavily on the ground when Faith removed her daggers from his back. Both friends found themselves face to face and considered the demon's body silently and attentively for a few seconds. When she was sure he was indeed dead, Faith looked up to Tara and gave her an annoyed grimace.

"Remember what we said?" she grumbled.

"I don't; remind me," Tara replied.

"You're supposed to stick to the plan and not put yourself at risk? NEVER put yourself at risk?"

"You know, you could just say 'Thanks for your help Tara'," the blonde answered, ignoring the question.

"I'm a Slayer, I can cope," Faith responded.

"Doesn't mean you never need help," Tara protested.

"I was about to get over it," the brunette insisted.

"I have no doubt about that," Tara gave in, slightly rolling her eyes.

"So, what are we doing about our new fr..." Faith started, but she interrupted herself when she saw that the waiter was not there anymore. "He's scrammed!" she exclaimed, indignant.

"Well, he probably took advantage of the fact that you were yelling at me to clear off!" Tara smirked knowingly.

"I wasn't yelling at you," Faith protested.

She cleaned her daggers with an old handkerchief found in one of her jacket's pockets, and hang them back at her belt.

"He must have come back to the bar to tell daddy," Faith said. "Let's go find him."

Saying this, she started to walk to leave the dead-end, Tara following close.

"You know, I think this poor waiter has nothing to do with our demon," the blonde affirmed.

"Why are you saying that?" Faith asked. "It's you who demonstrated that everything was against him."

"Right," Tara admitted. "But if you had seen how he looked when he saw the demon! I think he had never seen him in his life before, neither that one nor any other else for that matter."

Faith pouted.

"And what about your great theory?"

"It wasn't perfect." the blonde remarked.

"But it wasn't that bad either," Faith resumed. "You were right, the demon was there. That symbol on the bar's sign can't be there only by chance."

"Someone else might have suggested it to him?" Tara offered.

"But what about his fiancée?" Faith went on. "It can't be a coincidence, all this crap is linked."

"If he hadn't cleared off, we could have asked him."

"Yeah, let's go back to the bar"

"I'd be surprised if he's back there."

"We'll see," Faith said as they turned at the corner of the street. "Anyway, we took care of the demon, that's what matters most. Our little demon conjurer can wait for tomorrow."

"Really, seeing how scared he looked, if it was him, I think he'll never do it again." Tara commented.

They crossed the remaining distance to the bar's door and Faith pushed it without hesitation in front of a group of smokers who did not appear to have noticed anything particular.

The bar was even more crowded than when both girls had left half an hour earlier. Faith gazed around, looking for the waiter, but unsurprisingly, he was nowhere in sight. Both friends elbowed their way in up to bar, and settled in the first free space they found.

"Only two days after the murder and everyone is back," Faith noticed.

"The Bronze was always full in Sunnydale," Tara remarked.

"That's right"

"So, you're back ? "

Faith slightly jumped at this new voice and turned around to face Luke who was standing there with two drinks in his hands. He held one to Faith with a smile.

"I've ordered this just in case you'd be back," he said.

Faith was slightly taken aback and hesitated briefly, then she shook her head and pointed to Tara beside her with her chin.

"I can't accept anything and let my friend here dying of thirst," she answered.

"Oh!" the young man exclaimed, a little embarrassed. "I'm very sorry. What do you want to drink?" he added, turning to Tara with a charming smile.

A not-so-telling grimace appeared on Tara's face and she opened her mouth to answer but Faith interrupted.

"Pineapple Malibu," the Slayer answered for her.

"Consider it's done." Luke said, already leaving toward the nearest waiter.

"What the hell are you doing?" Tara grumbled. "I thought we were supposed to find the waiter?"

"Forget about the waiter for the moment," Faith replied casually. "We got rid of the demon, that's what's important. Everything else can wait for tomorrow, and until then, we're gonna have some fun."

She cast a glance toward Luke who was patiently waiting for his turn behind a laughing group of girls, then grabbed Tara's wrist and dragged her behind her toward the dance floor.

"What are you doing?" Tara asked, trying as best as she could to resist the Slayer.

"Let's go dancing," Faith announced.

"I don't know how to dance." Tara protested.

"We don't care," Faith replied. "It's full, no one will notice. And don't tell me you never got to dance with the scoobies at the Bronze"

"I'm rather sure it has nothing to do with the way YOU dance." Tara grumbled in a low voice, but Faith nevertheless heard.

"Stop being so grumpy," Faith smirked. "A little fun can't be bad."

She pulled Tara – who looked quite impressed by the dancing crowd around them – against her, holding firmly her back with one hand, and gave in to the music, trying to take Tara with her. The blonde was not very at ease, but the Slayer found it amusing, and as she had announced, no one was paying attention to them, which encouraged Tara to try to follow Faith despite her obvious clumsiness. Just when the witch started to get a little more confident, the brunette suddenly released her and nearly ran toward the bar, after whispering quickly "don't move, I'll be back" in Tara's ear. Slightly annoyed, the blonde looked at her friend meeting with Luke at the bar, the young man busy with their three drinks. Tara rolled her eyes and watched Faith chatting with the guy between two mouthfuls, before rushing back toward her as quickly as she had left. The Slayer pushed her way easily through the crowd and when she finally reached Tara, she held her the drink Luke had offered with a triumphant smile on her face.

"Drink," she said, sipping in her own glass as she said so. "It's hot in here!"

It was true and Tara was only too happy to take a sip as she was invited.

"T-thank you," she stammered.

"In one go Tar," Faith suggested. "The glass is going to burden you while you dance."

Tara opened her mouth to answer but Faith interrupted her.

"In one go!" she insisted as she emptied her own glass. "Don't you feel hot?"

Tara looked to waver again but a firm frown from the Slayer finally convinced her and she emptied her drink of Malibu in a few mouthfuls as she was instructed. A large, satisfied smile appeared then on Faith's face. As soon as the drink was finished, she got rid of both their glasses, just leaving them on the nearest table behind them, not even noticing the people around said-table. She pulled Tara again behind her toward the center of the dance floor.

"Leaving your escort all by himself?" Tara giggled.

"Not for long," Faith answered, while making the blonde turning with her. "But a girl must play hard to get. And I don't want to leave you alone"

Tara welcomed the last part with a brief smile. Faith pulled her a little closer and the blonde relaxed.

"I've spotted a short blonde who can't keep her eyes off you," the Slayer whispered in her friend's ear.

"She probably can't take her eyes off YOU," Tara replied absent-mindedly.

"What do you think?" Faith asked, not paying attention to what Tara had just said. "Ten o'clock after I make you turn another time."

"Faith…" Tara said, exasperated.

"Ready?" Faith questioned, as she swung around, dragging Tara with her. "Ten o'clock, the blonde, half-long haired, with a red and black tee-shirt."

As Faith insisted, Tara slightly looked up to follow her friend's instructions. She hardly had time to look at the woman – who was indeed looking at her from head to toes and who gave her a fleeting smile when she noticed Tara watching toward her – when Faith asked:

"Cute, isn't she?"

Tara shrugged and appeared to have nothing to answer.

"Admit it!" the brunette insisted. "Of course, she's not as hot as I am, but for someone who isn't me, she's not too bad!"

Tara rolled her eyes but nevertheless nodded.

"She's cute," she admitted.

"So, are you going to talk to her or do you want me to do it for you?"

"What?" Tara choked. "I'm not going to talk to her, it's not even a qu…"

Faith did not give her time to finish: she released her and took a step toward the blonde. Tara caught her wrist just in time.

"Faith! What are you doing?"

"You've just said you wouldn't go," she said casually. "So, I'm going for you!"

"It's out of the question!" Tara ordered. "I…"

"Hey, remember what we've said: we're going to find someone for you tonight"

"YOU've said that" Tara replied, insisting strongly on the word 'you'.

"C'mon, Tar, relax. It's just for one night, it's not like I'm looking for the woman of your life!"

Faith did not notice the imperceptible change in Tara's expression, but as Tara's grip on her hand weakened, she read this as an authorization and got away from her friend toward the short blonde with a light smile. Tara remained stupid, not really knowing what to do or how to stand. She finally crossed her arms over her chest awkwardly while Faith talked with the cute girl. Her awkwardness grew incredibly higher when only two minutes later, Faith came back toward her, shortly followed by the blonde girl. The young woman held a drink to Tara as Faith slightly tapped her shoulder.

"Hey Tara, I'm Marina. I can offer you a gin tonic, but if you want something else, I can go and get what you want for you…" the newcomer said with a charming smile.

"I'm leaving you in good hands," Faith breathed in her ear, nearly at the same time. "If you need me, I'll be around. Have fun."

And with that, the Slayer made her way back to the bar. Tara looked at her, lost her a moment in the crowd of the dancers before seeing her again as she appeared at the bar near Luke, who had been patiently waiting for her all this time, which earned him a large knowing smile from the brunette.

"Is this okay or do you want something else?"

Marina's voice snapped her off her reverie and Tara turned from Faith and Luke to face the young woman who was still holding a glass of alcohol to her.

"It's fine," Tara said as she grabbed the drink with a half smile.

As to convince her new date she was telling the truth, she ended up swallowing the whole drink in one go, which earned her a surprised frown.

"Wow! You're able to take your drink!" the other giggled. "I'm going to get you some more if you want!"

Then, she shyly grabbed Tara's wrist to drag her toward a clearer spot of the dance floor and the witch did not display any sign of resistance.

From the bar, Faith observed them for a few seconds, and Luke did as well.

"So, your friend's gay?" he asked after a moment.

Faith turned to him and arched an eyebrow.

"Is that a problem?" she asked, rather dryly.

"Oh, no, no, no," he answered quickly, raising in hands in submission, having clearly picked up on the Slayer's aggressive tone. "Absolutely not. I was just being curious."

"Good," Faith simply commented.

A brief uneasy silence followed before Luke resumed:

"But what about you? Are you gay too? Just wondering." He hastily added.

Faith could not help smirking in front of a so awkward and obvious question but nevertheless answered.

"I'm not. Tara and I are just friends."

Luke tried not to show his satisfaction too openly and nodded with a simple "Ok".

"She's kind of shy," Faith thought best to explain with a hint of mischief. "So, I'm giving her a hand."

"That's really sweet of you!" Luke chuckled. "She's lucky to have you."

"That's what I keep telling her!" Faith exclaimed, while raising her drink. "You'll tell her when she comes back."

"Absolutely." He answered, before suddenly changing the subject. "So, where you two have gone earlier?"

Though she should have expected that question to come, Faith nearly choked on her drink. After swallowing long mouthfuls to give her time to make up a believable story, she finally gave up to find one and stood abruptly from her stool.

"C'mon," she said, seizing Luke's forearm.

She pulled him behind her up to the dance floor and he allowed her to drive him after hastily leaving his own glass on the counter.

If he had any intention of asking her again where she had gone, he did not have the opportunity. Faith hardly gave him time to breathe, quickly becoming excited with the music and the dancing crowd, and Luke had to devote all his energy to keeping her with him.

When the Slayer eventually left the dance floor again to come back to the bar, Luke had forgotten his question a long time ago and he was only too happy to follow her and to plop down on a stool beside Faith.

"Whoa! " he exclaimed, gesturing to the bartender at the same time. "I can't believe how you dance! What do you want to drink?"

Faith asked for another beer, and while Luke ordered their two drinks, she turned to the dance floor and looked for Tara. She caught a glimpse of the blonde on the other side of the dance floor, still holding a drink. Her friend turned to her at the same moment and their eyes met briefly.

"Looking for your friend?" Luke asked as he turned to her again, holding her a new drink. "She won't get lost, you know."

"I just hope she won't drink too much," Faith explained without thinking. "She's not used to drink."

Luke smiled to her as she turned again to him, and Faith could not help but finding him charming.

"It's really sweet to take care of her this way," he commented, and it drew a disgusted grimace out of the brunette. "How long have you known each other?" he resumed.

"A few months,"

"Only?" the young man asked with surprise. "You'd think you've been friends for like forever."

Faith smirked and shrugged with indifference.

"Going back to the dance floor?" she offered, already standing.

Luke gazed at her with surprise, and then shook his head vehemently.

"I'm sorry," he said, apologizing. "But I won't be able to follow you again this time around, I give up!"

Faith pouted and appeared to waver about what to do next. She glanced once more toward Tara, and for a brief second, she thought about giving up her Adonis to go dance with the blonde. She finally gave up on that idea, not wanting to spoil Tara's chance with her date, just as Luke resumed:

"So, tell me a little about you," he asked hastily, obviously wishing Faith's attention back to him. "What are you doing when you're not dancing?"

Faith smirked again and just swallowed her drink in one shot. Luke looked a little surprised, but he pulled himself together quickly and gestured to the bartender to refill the brunette.

"And when you're not drinking?" he added hesitantly.

"Oh, nothing terrible," Faith answered ironically. "Slaying vampires here and there…"

Luke looked expectantly at her for a moment, waiting for her to laugh in his face and confirm she was joking. Seeing nothing was coming, he decided to act good-naturally.

"And when you're not slaying vampires?" he asked carefully.

"You know, it takes a lot of time," the Slayer answered, amused. "But I also travel around the country, doing casual jobs here and there" she added quickly.

"And how have you ended up here?"

"It was part of the 'travelling around the country' plan"

"Where are you coming from?"

"We left Cleveland last September"

"Great, "Luke exclaimed, with sincere enthusiasm. "You must have seen a lot of things! Which roads have you taken? Where do you think you'll go afterwards?"

Faith agreed willingly to tell him about their journey, even if avoiding carefully the too supernatural details of it. Luke looked really interested with her tale and the conversation between them went smoothly, so that Faith caught herself kind of liking him and started to wonder if enjoining Tara to find someone for the night had been such a brilliant idea.

While thinking about how she could organize the end of the night, she was talking about Montana and how they got lost in the mountains, when she suddenly fell silent and turned round to Luke's surprise. In front of her, Tara had just arrived and was looking at her, glassy-eyed and looking really tired.

"Hey, you fine? " Faith asked, immediately worried as she stared at her friend's exhausted face. "What's wrong? What d'you want?"

"I'd like to go home…" Tara whispered, staring into space, her voice somewhat unsteady, obviously drunk.

"Home?" Faith repeated and frowned. "What do you mean 'Home'?"

"Anywhere with you," Tara answered in the same tone, as she got closer to the Slayer and leant on the bar to support herself.

The brunette frowned a little more then finally nodded slowly.

"Okay, I see," she said kindly. "I believe you need some rest and calm."

She jumped at the bottom of her stool and slipped her arm round Tara's waist to keep her standing. Then she turned to Luke and offered him an apologetic smile.

"Duty calls," she said briefly. "Sorry to have to go. Thanks for the night, was nice. Maybe I'll see you around."

He waved at her, wanted to say something, but did not have time. Faith had already her back to him and was dragging Tara toward the exit.

"You're blind drunk!" the Slayer smirked as her friend was staggering beside her. "By the way, what have you done of your cute blondie?"

"Don't really know" Tara admitted, waving vaguely behind her, toward the dance floor. "I'm ashamed of

myself; she's kept buying me drinks."

"Get over it: her only goal was to get in your pants" Faith commented as she pushed open the front door of the bar.

They went outside and the fresh air of the night appeared to liven the witch up a little.

"I thought that was kind of the plan?" she remarked.

"What?"

"Getting in my pants."

"True, but you shouldn't have drink that much then," Faith answered as they were going away in the street. "I bet you'll fall down asleep as soon as we get to our room."

"Dunno," Tara said absent-mindedly while she relaxed a little bit more against Faith.

"Why?"

"I'm hungry"

"Oh!" The Slayer exclaimed, amused. "But I can't blame you. I'm starving too."

She stopped walking and looked around, as if looking for a solution. As an idea came, she resumed her stride in the street, resolutely this time.

"There's a sort of pizzeria on our road back to the motel," Faith explained. "We'll get something as we get there."

"Faith, it's two in the morning," Tara remarked. "It will be closed."

"Open all night on Friday and Saturday nights!" the Slayer exclaimed triumphantly. "We're gonna have our pizza!"

Half an hour later, Faith opened their motel's room's door, with indeed a box of pizza and a pack of beers in one hand, as she still helped Tara to stand with her other hand. After she struggled with the lock and finally opened the door, the blonde collapsed on the bed with her arms spread while the Slayer put pizza and beers on the coffee table by the window.

"You should eat before falling asleep, Tara," Faith invited her. "Or I'll eat everything myself."

The threat was serious and believable enough for Tara to manage to stand up back and to come and settle cross-legged in front of Faith who was already cutting pieces of the pizza up. She held one for Tara with an opened beer.

"I thought I had already drunk enough?" the blonde remarked.

Faith just shrugged.

"Whatever. You're not going anywhere else. And you don't have a blonde to impress anymore."

The reasoning appeared to bear fruit and Tara took the beer thankfully and clicked it lightly with Faith's one.

"To us." She said simply.

Faith just nodded approvingly and they both drank a full mouthful before starting with their piece of pizza.

Of course, Faith swallowed hers at lightning speed, but drunk as she was, Tara did not even notice or failed to comment on, as she usually did. The girls quickly ran out of pizza – Faith being responsible for the disappearance of much of it – and the brunette started to finish the remaining beers before going to bed, receiving help in this from a more and more drunken Tara.

"You can hold your drink better than I thought Tar", Faith smirked, getting quite tipsy in her turn. "I think you even managed to get me drunk."

"I haven't done anything," Tara protested, not sounding utterly convinced. "You've been the one to get me drunk for hours!"

"I would have stopped long ago if you had passed out!"

"Oh!" Tara exclaimed, faking indignation. "You indeed were trying to get me drunk!"

Saying this, she suddenly stood up and accusingly stretched out one of her finger toward Faith, who was still sitting cross-legged near the empty pizza box. But she acted too briskly considering her current condition, lost her balance and fell over backwards. Waving chaotically her arms about did not help her to regain her balance and to remain standing, and the blonde fell heavily on the bed behind her, which did not fail to trigger Faith's hilarity. Tara pouted at first, then encouraged by her friend's infectious good mood, she started to giggled as well. She tried to sit up but her head was spinning so badly that the effort needed to be able to sit appeared to be impossible to make. Faith watched her useless attempts for a moment, only able to laugh, before she finally calmed down and got up to come to her help.

"C'mon, miss 'I-drink-too-much-malibu-and-i-can't-deal'!" The Slayer said as she stretched out her hand.

"I can perfectly deal," Tara protested without moving.

"Well, I saw that with cutie-blondie!" Faith smirked and stretched out her hand further.

"She was talking weird," Tara tried to explain, slightly sitting up as she seized Faith's offered hand.

The brunette giggled at this and lightly pulled on Tara's arm to help her to stand up back. The blonde followed, but as soon as she was on her feet, she staggered again and fell backwards once more, dragging Faith – who had not let go off her yet – down in her fall. Both being drunk, none tried a single gesture to catch themselves, and Tara found herself lying on the still made bed with Faith half on top of her. The brunette Slayer could see the witch's glassy eyes and smell her breath heady with alcohol. In other times and others circumstances, Faith just like Tara, would have quickly pulled away, embarrassed by such a closeness. But the circumstances being what they were, Faith did not want to move. She was staring at Tara's lips, pursed in an innocent and frank smile as Faith had rarely seen her wear before. A little voice in her head was yelling that what she was about to do was a complete mistake and that she should gave up on that idea; but everything she had drunk since the beginning of the night along with repressed desires hidden under mountains of good reasons drowned that little voice. Then, giving in to her impulse and against any logic or coherent thinking, Faith kissed Tara. As her lips touched Tara's with a wild passion, her hands seemed to completely stop obeying her and slipped under the witch's long skirt. At first, Tara did not react, then when she finally realized what was happening, she pulled free from the kiss to weakly protest:

"Faith, what…"

But Faith hardly heard her and immediately took back possession of Tara's lips fiercely, her hands pulling frantically the blonde's skirt up along her thighs up to her hips.

"Faith…" Tara resumed weakly. "I…"

She wanted to sit up and tried to free herself from Faith's embrace. But the Slayer kept her into place by the strength of her wrists and she moved one of her legs between the blonde's ones while putting the other on her side, blocking any movement in the process. Tara's mouth opened again to protest but the words died in her throat when she felt Faith pressing her leg against her while the brunette's hands opened her shirt in nearly one only gesture. Tara's breath caught in her chest in surprise when she felt the Slayer's hot and strong hands sliding in her back, searching for the hook of her bra, while in the meantime, Faith plunged her face in Tara's neck. The feeling of the brunette's warm breath on her nape and of her fingers running on her breasts got the better of what was left of the blonde's consciousness. Faith felt then the witch's hands grabbing her neck to pull her closer and Tara's body straightened under her as her lips searched the Slayer's in her turn.

Faith felt as if her blood was boiling in her veins when Tara captured her lips with her own, kissing her with unexpected passion, biting, sucking on her lips without any inhibition left. Her fingers frantically finished to free Tara's chest, which she kneaded with both hands, not exactly being gentle or tender, but the blonde did not seem to notice her partner's lack of softness. Gripping Faith's dark locks with one hand, Tara looked for the bottom of the Slayer's tank top and pulled it up to her shoulders. The brunette agreed then to stop for a brief moment what she was doing to be able to get rid of her top while Tara was already searching awkwardly for Faith's buckle with her free hand and finally managed to open it with great difficulty. Faith then unzipped her jeans herself and slipped them off before sliding her thigh again between Tara's. The blonde quivered at the sensation of Faith's naked skin against hers and her hands went down along the Slayer's back. Faith shivered slightly in her turn when Tara slid her hands along her buttocks. This contact decided the brunette to remove Tara's panties along her thighs. Tara moaned lowly in anticipation and gave up on Faith's lips to tilt her head back and breathe deeply. Any air literally deserted her lungs when the Slayer slipped her strong fingers between her thighs. Faith did not try to play with Tara, or to keep her waiting. The blonde's hands went up back to the Slayer's hair that she clutched with the same strength her partner was using to force pleasure out of her.

There was nothing in that moment of the strange and subtle tenderness they sometimes shared. There was nothing in Faith of Willow's heady and suave sensuality. There was nothing in Tara of her usual restraint and discretion. The world appeared to have suddenly jumped into the unknown, dragging the two friends along, in a swirl of emotions and feelings they had never imagined sharing.

And as Tara bit her upper lit in response to Faith's caresses, the Slayer's mind filled with other similar images of the blonde, felt the exhilarating desire the witch had once felt for someone who wasn't her, so long ago and not so long ago at the same time. If she had been sober and more lucid, the Slayer probably would have realized how unique and peculiar this experience was. She probably would have understood that what she knew of the blonde in that instant, Tara knew just as much about her. That realization would probably have been too much for her to bear. Maybe she would have pushed the blonde away, despite her embrace becoming firmer, more comforting and desperate at the same time with each passing second. Maybe. But there was nothing of all this in that precise moment. Just the almost animal and common will to satisfy her own desire and her partner's. As quickly and as good as possible. It had been such a long time. Far too long.


	5. Act 4

The light of the sun crept into the room through the half-drawn curtains of the motel room, and lightened an impressive mess. The floor was covered with various objects: clothes were scattered on the floor between an empty pizza box and several beer bottles, empty as well.

Tara tried to open her eyes with difficulty, feeling an unfamiliar headache. When she finally succeeded, she tried to gather her thoughts. She was lying on her back in the bed on the motel room she shared with Faith these days, and her body appeared to be filled with unknown or forgotten sensations. Tara turned her eyes to Faith who was lying on her stomach beside her and was still sleeping. The blanket covered half of her back and Tara frowned when she noticed that the Slayer was half naked. Then she jumped when she realized that the weight on her own stomach was in fact Faith's arm stretched over her, her hand resting on Tara's hip and a finger wrapped in her panties' elastic. Tara tried to focus on the moment and abruptly sat up when she realized what was going on after beholding the room. Faith slightly moved at Tara's jump and opened her eyes. Her gaze landed on her bed's partner. Faith fleetly smiled and still half-sleeping, she just managed to utter one word, which was not even really a word:

"Hey…"

Tara for her part was looking at her dumbfounded, her eyes wide-opened. The witch then retched and jumped out of the bed before rushing to the bathroom whose door slammed loudly behind her. Faith sat up then.

"Tara, you okay?"

The witch did not answer and Faith felt a little dizzy after her sudden movement. She lay down again just for a second to try to regain her balance but she sat up again then stood upon hearing Tara throwing up in the bathroom. She went to the door and lightly knocked on the door.

"Tara, you okay? Do you need something?"

Tara still did not answer and Faith came back to the bed to sit down. She considered all the empty bottles on the floor and the night before slowly came back to her mind. A fleeting smile appeared on her lips as she remembered. The bathroom's door opened then and a very pale Tara came in. Faith looked up to her and her smile vanished immediately in front of her friend's inscrutable face.

"You sick?" she asked casually.

Tara vaguely nodded, then turned around the bed to lay down on the deserted side again.

"Not surprising," Faith resumed in the same tone. "You've drank so much…"

Tara settled in silence, her back to the Slayer, and threw the blanket over her.

"Going back to sleep?" the brunette asked. "Good call, after getting plastered like you did, nothing's better than…"

"Can't you just leave me at peace?" Tara interrupted shortly.

Tara's sharp tone surprised Faith a bit and the Slayer opened her mouth to answer something, but eventually closed it without pronouncing any sound. She considered Tara's back for a few seconds, appeared to waver then casually shrugged.

"Okay," she said while standing up. "I leave you sobering up."

She crossed the distance to the bathroom and slammed the door behind her a little louder than was necessary. Tara did not move an inch.

Faith spent a long time in the shower to relax, enjoying the feeling of the warm water flowing on her skin. Then she took a long time to dry herself, which was not usual for her, and she shamelessly used every single towel of the room in the process. Once her body was dry and her hair vigorously rubbed down, the Slayer left the bathroom completely naked, not bothering to know if Tara was still asleep or not. Faith supposed she was, because the blonde did not have a single reaction when the Slayer went back into the room and started to look for her clothes in the pile lying on the floor, still completely naked. She quickly slipped her underwear, jeans, top and sweatshirt, then ran her hand through her hair to comb it roughly. Finally she flopped down heavily on the bed to slip her shoes on and lace them up. Tara remained silent.

"Guess you don't want anything for breakfast?" Faith asked, turning to the blonde's unmoving shape.

As expected, the witch did not answer. The brunette shrugged, stood and nimbly crossed the room. The shower had obviously given her back all her abilities. She carefully closed the door behind her and hurtled down the stairs to the restaurant, her stomach now loudly yelling at her.

She came back more than one hour and thirty minutes later, her stomach now full and after a quick walk in the neighborhood. With a small paper bag in hand, she crept into the room, wondering if Tara would still be asleep. The blonde was still in bed, with her back to the door. Faith put the bag away on the table before turning to her friend:

"Feeling better?" she asked. "We missed breakfast and lunch too by the way." she explained with a hint of regret. "I've gone to the fast-food nearby. I've brought you a sandwich if you're hungry. I was starving myself."

She did not get any answer and supposed that the blonde was still sleeping. She considered the sandwich she had just left on the table, then again her friend's unmoving back. After another second thinking about it, she grabbed the bag and the sandwich and eat her way through it.

Once the sandwich swallowed, the Slayer found herself at loose ends. After a brief moment, she decided to switch the tv on and lowered the volume as much as possible. She came to sit back near Tara and started to flick through the TV channels when she found nothing suiting her. Ten or maybe twenty channels later, a picture of what she thought was the front of the 'Holding the night' in a little frame at the top right of the screen, got her attention. The brunette turned the volume up to be able to hear what the speaker was saying. But she never got the chance to listen to the following report, as Tara abruptly turned round to her, obviously unhappy.

"Faith, I'd like to sleep, do you have to be that noisy?" she exclaimed angrily.

"Oh!" Faith exclaimed and frowned. "You really have toworrows hard! Remind me of that next time we drink a little too much!"

"Next time?" Tara grumbled, turning round again. "As if there would be a next time!"

"What's the matter with you?" Faith asked then, grabbing Tara's shoulder to prevent her to turn her back again. "Why are you so mad?"

"Stop pretending you don't know," Tara hissed between her teeth, while trying to get free from Faith's grasp without suceeding.

"Tell me," Faith ordered.

Tara failed once more to turn her back to her again, and after another last unsuccessfull try, she decided to give up and frankly sat up and faced the brunette.

"What you did to me yesterday" the blonde spat.

Faith needed a second or two to process what the blonde had just said.

"What I did to you?" she exclaimed, with surprise and irony at the same time. "I guess you're talking about what you did to me as well?"

Tara's face briefly went red and she opened her mouth to offer a cutting reply but only a stutter came out and the blonde had to wait until she was able to master her stammering. Faith got the better of the situation to answer in her place.

"So, that's the problem? You're mad because we had sex?" she said, dumbfounded.

"I guess we can put that that way," Tara answered coldly.

"There's another way to put it?" Faith replied.

"Don't take me there," the blonde said, now perfectly awake.

"Oh I will," Faith insisted, more and more irritated with her friend's aggressiveness. "What's the matter? Explain, because really I can't see what's wrong. You got your orgasm and I got mine, all's well that's ends well, right?"

"To begin with, I didn't get an orgasm!" Tara exclaimed without thinking, and it earned her a knowing smirk from Faith.

"Not what I remember…" the brunette bragged.

Tara nearly interrupted herself to react to this but she finally carried on with what she was saying.

"You took advantage of my condition," she resumed a little calmer. "You took advantage of the fact that I was drunk"

Faith almost choked and tittered with contempt at this.

"I took advantage of you?" she mocked. "You gotta be kidding me."

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Tara replied.

"Seems you ain't, and that's crazy." Faith answered dryly, standing. "And I thought that you've finally gotten all your faculties back. Obviously, you've got a screw loose!"

"You haven't found anything else to defend yourself?"

"Defend myself?" Faith shouted angrily. "Defend myself for what? For…"

"You perfectly know that I would never sleep with you if I wasn't drunk!"

Faith stopped at this and her face darkened briefly. She furrowed her brow and clenched her teeth. For a second, she appeared on the verge of fury but she finally only shrugged with a condescending smile on her face.

"You were dying to sleep with me," she scoffed, as she grabbed her jacket and slipped it on. "I don't see what's wrong with that. Except if the ex-con isn't good enough for the so-called goody-goody you were."

Then, without giving Tara time to answer, she strode to the door that she banged open. As she crossed the threshold, she turned to the blonde and said quickly:

"New murder at the 'Holding' by the way,"

And with that, she slammed the door behind her, leaving Tara alone.

The Slayer wandered aimlessly in the streets for some time, feeling a dull anger deep down. She needed to get rid of it but did not know how. She tried to focus on the latest news she had caught a glimpse of on the TV just before her fight with Tara, but did not really succeed. The blonde's reaction was just as impossible to understand, as it was exasperating for the Slayer. The brunette had never given much importance to her various sexual experiences, and though she understood that it was not a general case, Tara's attitude left her completely stuck. As the months went by, Faith had learnt not to always pay attention to her friend's strange reactions, most of the time thinking they were the result of Tara's resurrection post-traumatic syndrome. Maybe it was too personal this time; maybe as they had grown closer recently, she had forgotten how her friend could be acting weird sometimes; but the fact remained that Faith could not help being angry. She would not have said no to a vampire or two to let some steam off. But although they had slept nearly all day long, it was not late enough for that yet.

Following the run of an empty beer can she had casually kicked, Faith found herself in front of a newspapers stall behind which an ageless woman looked at her sternly when the can came to a stop under one of her shelving. Faith pretended not to notice and exchanged a few bucks she found in the bottom of her pocket against the evening newspaper. She settled at a café table a street away where she ordered a cappuccino before opening the papers. The front-page headline announced that another young woman had been murdered the night before near the 'Holding the night', just as Faith had seen on the TV before fighting with Tara. The details she read in the article confirmed that the woman had been killed under the same circumstances as the previous victims, which strongly suggested that Faith and Tara had been wrong about the murderer the night before.

"It's still good to get rid off another demon…" Faith hissed between her teeth.

She resumed her reading of the article which recalled the dates when the previous murders had been committed, and the journalist was pointing the fact that the killer had struck two times very close unlike his former murders. That fact bothered Faith as well. Her instinct told her these two murders committed so closely and their intervention of the night before could not be just a coincidence. Maybe there were several demons? Maybe the waiter – or whoever was the summoner – had summoned another demon to replace the one the Slayer had killed? Tara's knowledge in this area probably would have been precious to enlighten the brunette right now, but Faith gave up on the idea to go back to the motel to ask the blonde for help at the second when the idea came.

She glanced at her watch. The bar would open in less than two hours from now. It gave her time to flip through the rest of the newspapers, to find something substantial to eat for dinner before coming back to the bar to close the case. The Slayer, then, took her time to skim through the papers, lingering longer over the jokes and weather pages than over local news or Stock Exchange ones. When she had exhausted every readable page for her and drank the latest drop of her coffee, she crumpled the newspapers, threw it in the nearest garbage can and walked away from the café, searching for a fast food. She stopped in the first one she found on her way, treated herself with a double cheeseburger, a giant portion of French fries and a box of chicken nuggets that she eat alone on a table in the corner of the restaurant. When full, she headed toward the 'Holding the night', ready to fight whoever was responsible for the events of the last few days.

Faith was annoyed when she noticed that the bar was not opened yet when she arrived in front of the closed front door. She paced in front of the door for a few minutes, but patience definitely not being her main virtue, she finally gave up on waiting and headed toward the small street where they had found the waiter the night before and where the back door was located. The street was deserted but Faith was happy to find out that the back door was unlocked and she slipped inside. The room she entered was the bar's storeroom: dozens of alcohol boxes, mainly of beers, were stored here. Faith did not really have time to make an inventory despite her curiosity, as loud voices quickly brought her back to reality. She wormed her way to the other end of the room and very carefully pushed on the handle of the door. Once the door half opened, she was able to hear the voices more clearly. Two men were arguing.

"How could you?" the first one was yelling hysterically.

Faith sneaked into this new room, smaller than the previous one. One of the walls was lined with fridges whereas other boxes were piled up on the other side.

"I can't believe you'd believe to that fairy tale!" the second man answered in a calmer tone. "It's ridiculous!"

The voices obviously came from a third room located at the end of the one Faith was now standing in.

"How not to believe this?" the first one resumed. "I saw it!"

"You'd rather believe a stranger than your own father?" the second asked with disdain.

"She's explained everything, she's showed me!"

Faith crossed the small room, not paying attention anymore to being silent: she was sure at the tension she perceived coming from the other room that no one would notice her.

"Women all turn your head!"

"You finally admit it!" the first man yelled, and Faith recognized the waiter's voice. "You always hated Rebecca!"

"Of course I did! She was arrogant stuck up!"

"You had no right to hurt her!"

"I've freed you!"

"You had no right!"

"Just as I'm going to free you now!"

"Don't hurt her!" the waiter yelled even louder than before.

Faith heard then the distinct sound of a scramble, of breaking glass, and finally a muffled cry. Faith's blood froze in her veins when she understood what meant the last exchange: there was someone else in the room with the waiter and his father. And the father looked resolute to make this person have a very bad time.

Once at the door, the Slayer opened it briskly, to be sure to draw anyone attention to her. The effect was perfect: Faith found herself on the threshold of a door leading to the back of the bar's main room, the manager and his son turned to her, obviously surprised by her sudden appearance. But the mocking and satisfied expression on the Slayer's face, quickly faded to be replaced with bewilderment when she noticed that the third person in the room was a blonde woman she very well knew.

"Tara?" She exclaimed with real surprise. "What the fuck are you doing here?" she added quickly, a hint of annoyance in her voice this time.

Saying this, she quickly inspected the blonde. She was sitting on the floor and her nose was slightly bloody, but apart from that, she did not look hurt. She wearily gestured at Faith to tell her she was fine, but did not answer to her friend's question.

"Who is this?" the father grumbled. "Another conquest?"

Then he eyed the Slayer from head to toes and added:

"She looks different than the others."

"She's not a conquest!" the waiter replied, irritated. "She's the woman I told you about, the one who killed your demon!"

A questioning and angry glimmer briefly shone in the manager's eyes and he watched Faith again, as to make another advice with this new piece of evidence.

"That's me," Faith confirmed, with a hint of pride. Then, turning to Tara: "Can we go back to the beginning?"

The blonde stood up, crossed her arms over chest and gestured toward the manager.

"It was him," she said, rather dryly.

"A new theory?" Faith asked, ironically.

"It makes sense," Tara grumbled. "And he hit me." She added, showing her bruised nose.

Faith turned to the manager who was looking furiously at Tara, and walked toward him.

"I know she can be really annoying," Faith said in a sickly sweet tone. "And frankly, I have to admit I thought to do it myself from time to time, but really, you shouldn't hit a woman!"

She concluded her sentence with a punch in the manager's face, but took care to master her strength. He stepped back nevertheless and hit the counter behind him. A glimmer of hatred shone in his eyes as he stood.

"Who are you?" he growled, touching his jaw.

"I'm Faith, the Vampire Slayer," the brunette said, somehow ceremoniously. "But my activity extends to any big ugly demons killing young girls at nightfall" she added mockingly.

"You're crazy," the man mumbled.

"That's what your son kept saying until his demon – or yours whatever – arrived."

"It's not my demon!" the waiter protested vehemently, looking at his father with obvious contempt. "It's his! He killed Rebecca in exchange for the bar success!"

"That's ridiculous! How dare you?"

The waiter then grabbed an open book on the bar – book which Faith had not paid attention to before – and showed something on the opened page and asked:

"What about this? What can you possibly answer to this? You showed me that sign first, everything written in this book match!"

Faith then recognized Tara's book, the one referencing the demonic brotherhoods that the blonde had showed her the night before.

"That's nonsense! A book for mentally retarded teenagers!" the father replied, rolling his eyes.

"I saw that thing with my own eyes!" the waiter spat. "I know you have something to do with it!"

Faith watched the exchanged since her arrival, half-amused, half-bored, and eventually decided it was time to put it to an end.

"Listen guys, I hate make you miss a good father and son fight, but I have better things to do. So, let's go to the essential already: dad, are you the one who summoned that demon? How many are they? Where can I find them?"

The two men stopped arguing, their attention now directed to her. Then the waiter turned back to his father and appeared to wait for an answer as well. The manager grumbled, annoyed to be stared at this way, then he snickered and shrugged.

"There's no demon, you should stop with that cra…"

He never had time to finish his sentence: Faith had crossed the distance between them, grabbed his collar and pressed his body against the bar behind him.

"Countdown's over," she explained icily. "There's a limit to my patience. Where's that demon?"

The man remained silently staring at the Slayer, and the waiter got slightly closer, his former anger now being replaced by a vague feeling of worry as he watched Faith's dangerous expression. But the Slayer's look apparently did not worry his father, as the man remained perfectly indifferent.

"I won't ask another third time." Faith said in a threatening tone and grabbing the man's hair at the back of his neck. "Where's that demon?" she repeated, making sure every word stood out clearly.

As the man did not react, Faith pressed his face against the bar and tightened her grip in his hair to make the threat more tangible. He tried weakly to get free, but the Slayer took a nasty pleasure in keeping him into place. That strength demonstration impressed the son, whose anger had apparently completely vanished now, replaced by his growing worry for his father's health.

"Don't…" he started shyly, hardly daring to look at Faith.

But Tara, who had finally got closer too, gave him a firm look and slightly nodded at him to inform him that he did not need to worry, that Faith would not hurt his father. He wavered, glanced from Faith to Tara, then to Faith again, and finally decided to trust Tara and kept quiet. Hearing him starting a sentence, Faith had turned to him and looked at him expectantly for a second. The father made the most of this short moment of distraction to get free from Faith who had slightly eased her grip. He slid from the Slayer's hands, and with a surprising ability, he rolled to the end of the bar and disappeared behind.

The brunette instantly reacted and pushed on one hand to jump across the bar. She landed nimbly on the other side and witnessed the man rip something he wore round his neck off and throw it against the wall on the other side of the room, near the door where the Slayer had entered. Whatever it was, it exploded as it met the wall and threw greenish flames around. Faith had to put her arm across her face to protect her face from the light. When she opened her eyes again, she was surprised to find, not one, but two demons standing where the object had exploded. She cast an annoyed glance to the manager and slightly rolled her eyes. The man looked quite satisfied with himself.

"What?" he said, shrugging casually. "Good things always come in threes, don't they?"

Faith had to control a very pressing urge to send her fist connecting with his face, and she was about to answer sharply when she heard a panicked cry. Her attention then came back immediately to the demons, who were exactly similar to the one she had killed the night before. The waiter, who was closest to the demons, had just cried out, unable to refrain his terror when one of the monsters had took a step toward him.

"Don't panic Jason," his father told him. "They won't hurt you, they obey me!"

"Yeah, right…" Faith mumbled, rolling her eyes again.

She jumped again above the bar as fast as she could, but was surprised to see Tara reacting before her. The blonde stepped forward to stand between the demons and the young man and conjured a soccer ball-sized fireball in her right hand. Without hesitation, the witch threw it to the closest demon, who only partially avoided it, and the flames licked at his left arm. An unhappy cry rang in the bar and the demon charged at Tara and the young man. The waiter cried out again and Faith hurried to help. But the creature stopped dead in its tracks less than two feet from them, and to their great surprise, it turned around and rushed with its companion to the storeroom where Faith had come from earlier.

Once the surprise had wore off, the Slayer turned to the manager of the bar and noticed that he still held something tightly in his hand as he looked to his troops' retreat with satisfaction. Faith briefly wavered, but when Tara dashed after the demons, the Slayer had no other choice than doing the same.

"Tara! Wait!" she yelled in vain.

Faith rushed to the door after the witch, pushed the waiter from the doorway and arrived just in time to shove a demon from Tara, whereas the witch apparently had the other one under control. Faith kicked the demon in his chest to get him away from the blonde and cast another glance to the witch to be sure she was still okay with her demon. Then, armed with the experience of the night before, Faith decided to go directly for efficiency and got her two daggers out of her jacket.

"C'mon, guy…" she breathed between her teeth, not moving, simply waiting for the demon to stand up and to charge again.

He quickly complied with her expectation and threw himself to her without any care. Faith was definitely waiting for him and she dodged the attack easily. Then, she turned around on the side to find herself behind him just as she intended. She raised her arms above her head and drove her two daggers in the demon's back before taking them off and driving them again sharply and deeply in the same place. The demon yelled in pain, reared up slightly, before falling to the ground, still. Faith did not take time to check if he was dead to hurry to Tara's help. The blonde wasn't doing too bad in fact, but if her spells were enough to keep the demon at a distance, Faith doubted they would be enough to finish him before the witch's strength abandoned her.

"Hey!" the Slayer called.

The demon interrupted his attack to turn to her. His blank eyes stared at the Slayer for a moment, then he turned again to Tara, then again to Faith. The Slayer walked over to him, her bloodied daggers still in hands. It decided the demon who finally turned away from Tara to charge her. Tara then stood up from her kneeling position and called him in her turn.

"Hey!" she said, annoyed. "We're not done!"

She conjured another fireball, and the monster turned to her again, unsure about what to do. Faith made the better of this distraction and jumped forward, her daggers raised forward. Both blades went in the monster's chest with all the Slayer's strength and the demon yelled even louder than his companion. He kicked out with rage to get free, and punched Faith who was sent across the room. The Slayer found herself empty-handed, her daggers still in the monster's chest as he yelled in anger and pain. The brunette felt slightly dizzy for a brief moment after her head had hit the ground hard, enough for the demon to get dangerously close to her. But she reacted quickly, and Faith swept the demon's legs nimbly as he was about to punch her head. He fell backward and hit the ground in turn. Tara's fireball then crashed on the wall, just above the Slayer's head.

"You crazy or what?" she yelled as she got up.

Tara vaguely gestured to tell her she had not done it on purpose and slightly rolled her eyes to Faith's furious expression. The Slayer decided to take her anger out on the demon and before he had time to stand up, she kicked the daggers more deeply in his chest. The monster gave a few death rattles and his body jerked two or three times before he remained still on the floor.

Faith slightly kicked his side before removing her daggers from his body. She looked around for something she could use to clean her blades, but finding nothing, she just put them back at her belt as is. Then, she turned to the door where stood the father and his son after having witnessed the entire scene. When he saw her turning to them, a hint of panic flashed into the father's eyes and he ran away as quickly as possible. Faith reacted at lightning speed and dashed to the door. She shoved the waiter again and ran after his father. The man did not go too far. He had not even crossed half of the main room when Faith caught up with him.

"Don't hurt me!" he yelled in terror. "I'm so sorry! I won't do anything like that again, I promise!"

"Sorry?" she said with disdain. "You're sorry?"

"I won't do that again!" he repeated.

"I'm sure you won't" Faith said coldly.

Saying this, she plunged her hand in his shirt and grabbed his pendant. When he understood what she was doing, he tried to get free without succeeding. Faith tore the chain off his neck and looked at the pendant: it was a little worn glassed-sphere, surrounded with a leather strap. It had nothing particular at first sight. After turning and turning it again between her fingers, Faith finally saw engraved in the glass and nearly erased, the original symbol of the demonic brotherhood that Tara had shown her in her book. Satisfied to find there the confirmation she was expecting, Faith crushed the sphere in her hand and threw the resulting bits of glass to the floor where they crumpled to dust as if by magic.

"No!" the man yelled in despair.

Faith released him and he threw himself to the floor, looking for the pieces of the broken marble.

"You won't do that again, uh?" she said with even more pronounced disdain than before.

He did not answer, still looking for any sign of his disappeared marble.

"He won't do that again," his son said then. "I promise you."

Faith turned round and saw the young man catching up with them, closely followed by Tara.

"But why?" he asked in a tired voice, looking at his father quite severely.

But instead of the anger one would expect him to express toward the man, he was more showing a huge disappointment for his genitor.

The manager sniffed contemptuously at the question.

"What else could I have done?" he asked, rather annoyed. "After your mother left, I did my best to raise you despite all the work I had with the bar. All these years, I thought that my efforts would not be in vain, that when you'd be a man, you'd help me to have the bar be going well. But instead of that… you never were serious, never helped as much as you could, just enjoying yourself with girls… I had to do something to avoid going bankrupt."

His son looked down, somewhat ashamed.

"You killed Rebecca…" he breathed after a silence. "And her sister…"

"She was distracting you," the father went on. "I figured that without her, you'd more focused on your job… And Sarah… Don't know how, but she suspected something, she came around with too many questions… I had to do something to protect our business…"

"I can't believe it…" the waiter said, his voice quivering slightly. "How could you? You couldn't just… I don't know… Talk to me?"

"And what? Threaten you to have your girlfriend eaten by a demon?" he ironically replied.

Faith listened to the explanations in silence and considered both of them before looking at her watch.

"We're going to leave you judge your father, "she said. "You'll decide what to do with him. If you need any help, you can call these guys, they'd know what to do."

Saying this, she rummaged in her pockets and got out a creased and dog-eared card of the Watchers council. The young man took it and distractedly read what was written before putting it in his own pocket.

"Thanks," he whispered. "I guess."

Then, he slightly kicked his father to get him out of his trance.

"Get up, Dad," Faith heard him saying as she was on her way to the exit with Tara on her heels. "We haven't much time to clean up this mess before the opening. I'll have to work for real now on."

Once outside, the girls walked in silence to the motel. Faith walked quickly enough to force Tara to make an effort to follow her, but not fast enough for the blonde to get tired and give up. From time to time, the Slayer cast a glance over her shoulder, hesitated to say something and waited for Tara to say something. But none of the two taking the initiative, they finally reached their room's door without having exchanged a single word. Once the door closed, Faith turned to Tara expectantly. But the blonde did not look as if she was about to say anything to her, and just plopped onto the bed where she started to untie her shoes. Faith looked at her doing so for a moment, then unable to wait more, she flared up:

"Can you tell me what the hell you were doing there all by yourself?" she asked dryly.

Tara slowly looked up and shrugged.

"You said there had been another murder at the bar," she said casually. "I thought you wanted to go there to resolve the case."

"Yeah, right," Faith growled in anger. "Am I so used to send you first doing bullshit?"

"It wasn't bullshit," Tara protested calmly.

"You just threw yourself into the lion's mouth, how it's not bullshit?" Faith resumed in the same tone. "I thought we had clear that one before, didn't we? You're not supposed to take risks!"

"I was trying to resolve the case, I'm perfectly able to manage!"

"Of course! That's what we see each time! What do you want? Getting killed? If that's so, you should tell me right now, I'd stop to waste my time trying to get your precious arse back to Buffy and company!"

"I was just trying to help!" Tara replied in a sharper way this time. "Why is that so unbelievable?"

"I don't need your help!" Faith yelled in anger. "How many times will I have to tell you that? The only thing you can do to help is to stay alive so that I can fulfil my mission and keep the promise I made to B! Is it too hard to understand?"

At first, Tara did not answer. She crossed her arms over her chest, looked away for an instant and bit her lower lip.

"You're angry about yesterday night and about this morning," she finally said, calm again. "It has nothing to do with my so-called taste for risks."

"What?" Faith said, arching her eyebrows with contempt. "Don't tell stories to yourself. I couldn't care less about that stuff."

"That's why you're yelling?"

"I remind you that you were the one to kick up a huge fuss about it. I'm yelling because you risked your life again for nothing and as a consequence, you put my mission in danger." Faith answered coldly. "I don't need to spend my time looking after you like you were a toddler."

"Then don't!" Tara replied scathingly.

"Like I have a choice!" Faith grumbled, rolling her eyes.

Then, she turned around, opened the room's door again.

"I'm getting out, I need some air," she finished, slamming the door behind her.

A few hours later, once her patrol finished, Faith found herself in front of the 'Holding the night' and noticed that the bar had opened despite what had happened. She wavered only a brief moment before pushing the door opened, after a glance to her watch. It was not late enough for her to return.

The 'Holding the night' had not very much changed since the nights before. Nothing could have told what terrible events had taken place there a few hours earlier. The same soft light lightened the same crimson curtains in the back of the bar. The same waiters were bustling about behind the counter to serve the same drinks to the same patrons when the same music rang in the bar.

Whereas it could have looked a very similar night as the previous ones she had spent there recently, Faith, for her part, did not look the same as the woman who had danced and drunk here the night before.

Sitting at the bar, the once rogue Slayer, made her beer casually turn between her fingers, looking without really seeing it the white foam dancing at the rate of her wrist's moves. Sometimes, she interrupted herself, just to take a sip.

Lost in her thoughts, Faith let herself be rocked by the sweet and melancholic melody of a Bonnie Raitt's song that was being played in the bar and just added to the depressing mood of the night.

_Turn down the lights, turn down the bed  
Turn down these voices inside my head  
Lay down with me, tell me no lies  
Just hold me close, don't patronize - don't patronize me _

The speakers played the song only a few feet from Faith who was too much engrossed in the circular moves of her beer for the words and their meaning to reach through her.

_Cause I can't make you love me if you don't  
You can't make your heart feel something it won't _

Faith stopped making her glass turn, considered it for a moment with the same blank expression, apparently wondering about some dark matters about the liquid, before making it turn again in the opposite direction this time.

_Here in the dark, in these final hours  
I will lay down my heart and I'll feel the power _

A few hundreds feet from there, the light was switched off in the motel room Tara and Faith were sharing for some days. The curtains were still opened and the light of the clear moon mixed with the street lamps one, was lighting Tara's tired face, as the blonde was sitting cross-legged on a corner of the bed, her eyes fixing the deserted street where there was nothing to look at.

An attentive watcher probably would have noticed a discreet tear rolling on the pale cheeks of the young witch. But no one was there to look at her.

_But you won't, no you won't  
'Cause I can't make you love me, if you don't  
_

Tara looked down and her gaze stopped for what felt the thousand times this night on two pictures she was holding gently in her left hand.

_I'll close my eyes, then I won't see  
The love you don't feel when you're holding me _

At the bar, Faith had not moved from her stool at the counter. Her drink was still almost full, which probably was related to everything she had drunk the night before. Or maybe not.

_Morning will come and I'll do what's right  
Just give me till then to give up this fight  
And I will give up this fight  
_

Faith turned around when Luke sat next to her, smiling, and he tried to start up a conversation. He suggested another drink but Faith shook her head politely before returning her attention to the drink she already owned. The young man insisted a little and Faith gestured to him to tell she was not interested. He looked disappointed but stood up and left after telling Faith where she could find him if she changed her mind. Faith did not even look at him as he got away.

_Cause I can't make you love me if you don't  
You can't make your heart feel something it won't _

At the motel, Tara had raised the pictures toward the window to get a better view of them. One of them showed Faith and herself side by side, in front of the Multnomah falls, smiling slightly. Tara had her hands crossed in from of her whereas Faith had one of hers on the railing behind her and the other shyly on the Wicca's shoulder.

Dawn had given her the other picture before she left Cleveland: it showed the whole scooby gang, probably just before Sunnydale collapsed because Anya was there and Tara could only notice how more mature and grown-up than what she remembered from before her death they all looked. Her gaze stopped longer on Willow and she could not help caressing the redhead's face with her thumb. Her eyes went from a picture to the other several times before stopping again on Willow, and Tara could not refrain another silent tear.

_Here in the dark, in these lonely hours  
I will lay down my heart and I'll feel the power _

At the 'Holding the night' bar, Faith's drink was half empty and the stool where she was sitting earlier was now empty. A few couples were dancing on the dance floor and the whispers of the conversations did not drown out Bonnie Raitt's plaintive voice.

In the men's bathroom, Faith was pressed against the cold wall with Luke's face in her neck, his hands massaging her chest fervently before going down to her belt and unzipping her pants. As she skilfully did the same, Faith tilted her head back and bit her lips with an expression that could be read as bored. Then she looked again at her partner and tried to give Luke a half smile when she saw the enthusiasm in his eyes as he made her pants slide along her hips.

_But you won't, no you won't  
'Cause I can't make you love me, if you don't_

* * *

_Song 'I can't make you love me' by Bonnie Raitt_


	6. Epilogue

It was already late in the night when Faith came back to the motel. The moon was full and high, the sky was clear. The Slayer's evening had not been especially difficult: there weren't too many monsters around there it seemed, but she had let off some steam with her detour through the 'Holding the night'. She was now calmer and had decided it was time to come back to the room she shared with Tara.

Her steps echoed on the iron stairs leading to the motel's second floor where their room was, and even though it occurred to her that she might wake someone up, Faith did not care and did not try to be quieter.

Finally in front of her door, Faith tried to look inside out the window, but the curtains were carefully drawn. She glanced at her watch and had to bend over the railing under the full moon to be able to see the hands. When she realized they were showing two in the morning, she grimaced at the thought of Tara being furious to have waited for her for so long. She turned to the door again and got her key out her jeans back pocket before sliding it into the lock. A trademark click told her the door was unlocked and Faith pushed it open to enter. She closed the door carefully behind her, taking care to make as less noise as she could in case Tara had fallen asleep while waiting for her. As the closing click softly rang, Faith waited for the moment when the light would be switched on and when Tara would gave her one of these looks she tried to be dirty but only betrayed her anxiety. But the light did not switch on, and Faith thought with a hint of regret that the blonde was probably very angry with her to be able to fall asleep before she was back.

She slipped along the wall to cross the room up to the bathroom and carefully opened the door before slipping in. She switched the light on and before the door was totally closed, she glanced at the bed without thinking.

And her heart skipped a beat.

The bed was empty, neatly made, without any trace that someone had been using it recently.

Faith immediately came back in the room and she groped around for the switch. When the room was lit, she scanned the few square maters of the empty room.

"Tara?" she called in vain.

As expected, no one answered.

The brunette quickly looked around the room again, feeling more worried with each second that passed. When she was forced to admit that Tara was not there, the Slayer rushed to the door, but as she was about to cross the threshold, something on the desk at the immediate right of the door caught her eye. A white sheet folded in two had been left there in an obvious way. In her haste to search for a trace of her friend, Faith had not noticed it before. She closed the door again and grabbed the sheet briskly. The Slayer unfolded it so quickly that she slightly tore the right top corner. The letter was for her and had been carefully written with blue ink. Faith skimmed through it a first time, then a second, as to be sure she had understood everything. Then she flopped onto the mattress behind her and started to read the letter a third time. The words were dancing in front of her eyes and she had to really make an effort to focus and get their meaning.

"_Faith," _the Slayer read_. "I don't think I'm wrong if I tell you we've both reached the end of this strange life together. I understand it must be hard for you to keep me with you and to take care of me, especially as I'm acting erratically sometimes. _

_I really want to thank you for everything you've done for me these last few months, I don't think any word would be enough to start to express how thankful I am._

_I could have left quite some time ago; I could have taken care of myself. I don't exactly know why I've stayed. Maybe I was just afraid of change. It only felt natural to me until now. But I realize I've never bothered to wonder what you wanted, I've never realized how much of a weight I am for you. I think it's about time I spread my wings and leave the nest._

_I know you made a promise to Buffy and you really wanted to keep it. Today you can consider you did. I'm freeing you of your promise; you'll be now free to do whatever you want._

_I wish you would finally find what you're looking for, whatever it might be, so far away from Cleveland and your people. _

_Maybe we will meet again someday._

_Good luck, _

_Tara"_

A fourth reading did not change the overall meaning and Faith remained staring at the letter between her hands for a moment before her nostrils imperceptibly quivered and she knitted her brow, holding back her irritation. Then, the Slayer slowly crumpled the letter between her fingers, and threw the ball of paper thus obtained on the desk in front of her.

"Crap," she concluded in the absolute silence.

* * *

_End of 'Come back before dark'_

_Next time : 'Wars'_


End file.
